{"id":60838,"date":"2013-09-20T02:13:58","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T02:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=60838"},"modified":"2013-09-20T02:13:58","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T02:13:58","slug":"sierra-leones-transport-minister-signs-mou-on-port-and-railway-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=60838","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leone\u2019s Transport Minister signs MOU on port and railway development"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sierra Leone\u2019s Transport and Aviation Minister, Leonard Balogun Koroma on 16th September arrived in Beijing, People\u2019s Republic of China, for the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Sierra Leone through his ministry, and China Kingho Group, for the development of Railway and Deep Seaport.<\/p>\n

In May 2013, the Government of Sierra Leone (Ministers of Mines and Justice) entered into a general Memorandum of Understanding with China Kingho Energy Group for the development of Mines, concentration plant steel plant Sea Port, Railway and Road.<\/p>\n

This latest MOU with the Ministry of Transport and Aviation is a supplementary one, to the one signed in May. The MOU deals with the components that fall under the direct control of Ministry of Transport and Aviation, which is the development of a Port and Railway in Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

When fully developed, the Port and Railway projects are expected to expedite the growth of the country\u2019s transport capacity and the development of industrial, agricultural and service trade sectors with a view of realizing a stable and sound economic growth, as outlined in the Agenda for Prosperity, Sierra Leone\u2019s blueprint for national development.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Beijing, Minister Leonard Balogun Koroma dilated on the relevance of an effective and robust transport system to a country\u2019s economy as \u201cno country in the world has ever developed without a robust transport system by land, air and sea. An effective transport system is the nerve center of any economy in the world\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister Leonard Koroma spoke of the three major components in his ministry, that will help in ensuring an economy turnaround for the country; the airport; sea port; and railway.<\/p>\n

According to Minister Koroma, the airport component involves building a new one with support by EXIM Bank of China. \u201cWe also want to reintroduce domestic air transport system in the country\u201d On the Deep Sea Port component, he disclosed, it is most important, since the country has billions of tons of iron ore minerals but that without a proper sea port transport system, Sierra Leone cannot realize the economic benefit of these billions of ore deposit.<\/p>\n

Speaking further, he referenced happenings with the two leading Iron Ore exporting companies in the country, saying, \u201cAt the moment, the manner in which London Mining and African Mineral are \u00a0 transporting the ore is not the ideal state as it is slow and outdated\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister Koroma, speaking from a regional framework, disclosed that when the deep sea port is developed, there is the possibility of neighboring countries utilizing it \u201cand all of these will bring revenue to Government and in so doing, the President will be able to finance the eight pillars in the Agenda for Prosperity\u201d He therefore, urged Kingho to pay priority to the development of the Deep Sea Port.<\/p>\n

\"Railway<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking on the railway component, Minister Koroma said, Sierra Leone has not invested in railway development and as such \u201cwe are lacking the economic benefits attached to it. It is therefore necessary that in order to realize our economic potential, we must invest in our railway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chairman for Kingho Energy Group, Huo Qinghua in his remarks paid gleaming tribute to President Ernest Bai Koroma for visiting their offices which he said \u201cwas recognition of our work and an inspiration for us to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huo Qinghua said, as a company, they have a responsibility to honor the commitment made in line with Sierra Leone\u2019s Agenda for Prosperity.<\/p>\n

On the MOU signed with the Transport and Aviation Minister, he said, such a signing ceremony \u201crepresents a good image of our desire to move our objectives forward especially in line with the transport component\u201d as it will also consolidate the confidence and trust of his company in the Port and Railway projects.<\/p>\n

He stated, they are working on feasibility studies for the construction of a Sea Port as well as the one for the Railway as they currently have a team of engineers in the country.<\/p>\n

Sierra Leone\u2019s envoy to China, His Excellency Victor Bockarie Foh, whilst speaking, underscored the country\u2019s commitment to development, as outlined in President Ernest Koroma\u2019s Agenda for Prosperity.<\/p>\n

On Kingho Energy Group\u2019s operation in Sierra Leone, Ambassador Foh said, even though the Group\u2019s \u00a0\u00a0investment portfolio went through the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources, \u201cthe Ministry of Transport and Aviation is almost pivotal in Kingho\u2019s operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ambassador Foh expressed hope, that with the determination of the Minister of Transport and with the support of the Embassy and the Government, Kingho will make a mark in Sierra Leone before the end of President Koroma\u2019s tenure in office.<\/p>\n

On the 17th<\/sup> of September, the Minister Koroma and Ambassador Foh visited the Kingho Industrial Park in Yinchuan Province to have a view of Ningxia Qinghua Group, established in 2006 and located in Wuzhong City, South of Ningdong Energy and Chemical base, Ningxia Hui autonomous region.China Kingho Group consists of subsidiaries including Inner Mongolia Kingho Group, Qinghai Kingho Group, Ningxia Kingho Group, Xinjiang Kingho Group and Tianjin Kingho International Trading Company. As a multi-industrial, multi-regional and multi-national modern energy and chemical enterprise, the Group mainly engages in mining and beneficiation of metal ores, metallurgy, and new coal chemical technology businesses.<\/p>\n

Currently, the Group has cooperation with Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Mongolia, Australia, and Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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Sierra Leone\u2019s Transport and Aviation Minister, Leonard Balogun Koroma on 16th September arrived in Beijing, People\u2019s Republic of China, for the signing ceremony of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":60839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,751,673],"tags":[1418,16891],"class_list":["post-60838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-global-news","category-national-news","tag-leonard-balogun-koroma","tag-railway-and-deep-seaport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}