Queen Margrethe II Tours Tema Port Expansion Project Site

The Queen of Denmark, Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II, has toured the MPS Terminal and Tema Port Expansion Project site as part of her three day royal state visit to Ghana.

The visit afforded Her Royal Majesty the opportunity to gain insight into the operations of the MPS Terminal and familiarize herself with the progress of work on the Expansion site.

In the company of Mr. Mohamed Samara, CEO of the Meridian Port Services, MPS, and Jesper Kjaerulf-Møller, Director of the Tema Port Expansion Project, Søren Jakøbsen, Portfolio Director, APM Terminal, HM The Queen first inspected the quayside operations of the MPS Terminal at the Tema Port.

She then went to the Meridian Rock; the symbolic landmark marking the line of Greenwich Meridian, the World’s prime meridian for Longitude and Time that passes through the Tema Port before finally proceeding to the site of the Tema Port Expansion Project.

HM The Queen’s visit was followed up with a tour of the MPS Terminal by the Danish Business Delegation who accompanied her on the visit to Ghana.

Comprising about 40 investors drawn from the Maritime and other sectors, the delegation affirmed that Ghana’s present economic climate presented a viable avenue for Danish Blue Chip Companies that were looking to expand their business.

“The Danish business community is ready to partner Ghana in providing innovative infrastructure solutions and technologies in the Maritime Industry to bring shared growth and prosperity to our countries”.

Briefing journalists on the sidelines of the tour, Mr. Samara said the new Tema Port was on target to commence operations on the first two out of four Berths of the new Port by end of June 2019.

He said through the Danish shareholders, APM Terminals, MPS had access to considerable amount of engineering resources and project execution know-how.

On her part, the Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Her Excellency Tove Degnbol, commenting on Denmark’s relationship with Ghana said, ‘‘when looking at the amazing progress Ghana has made during the past 25 years, Denmark is proud to have shared the journey with our Ghanaian partners.

“Experience so far shows that there is a large potential for increasing the commercial cooperation between our two countries’’.

This momentous visit is expected to yield prospective avenues for the Maritime Sector and boost the ever- growing economy of Ghana.

The Tema Port expansion project, a U.S. $1.5 billion port infrastructure investment is being executed by the Meridian Port Services, MPS, made up of APM Terminals, a company of Danish origin together with other partners.

When completed, the new state-of-the-art port will have the capacity to harbour the world’s largest liner vessels on its 1,400m quay where it will operate four container vessel berths.

The project began in November 2016 and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2019.

Source: GNA