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#President&Ports - Senior port managers from developing countries who are passing on their expertise to colleagues met President Michael D. Higgins in Dublin, on 21 June during the week-long United Nations Conference on Trade & Development's Training of Trainers workshop.

President Higgins welcomed the managers from ports in Indonesia, Ghana, Malaysia, Nigeria, and the Philippines which are members of the English-speaking network of UNCTAD’s Train for Trade port management programme. Prospective members from Serbia and a former member from Namibia were also present.

"As an island nation, almost uniquely dependent on international trade, we in Ireland know and value the importance of our ports, and all who work there," Mr. Higgins said during a reception at Áras an Uachtaráin, his official residence.

The workshop was co-organized by Dublin Port Company, with the support of Port of Cork Company and Belfast Harbour Commissioners and held at the head office of Dublin Port Company and the National College of Ireland.

Prosperity for all

“I am so very proud that our ports here in Ireland and Irish Aid, our overseas development assistance programme, have been participating with the English-speaking network for eleven years now, and that they have agreed to continue for four more years,” Mr. Higgins said.

“It is an example of internationalization in the best sense, co-operative not competitive, dedicated to the prosperity of all the peoples of the world rather than a narrow few.”

The face-to-face workshop was the completion of a course that started with a distance learning component from April to June which represented a new blended learning strategy for the Port Management Programme.

The objective of the workshop was to prepare the senior port managers for their roles as future instructors in their port communities.

UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi was due to take part in the closing ceremonies of the workshop to distribute the certificates to successful candidates.

Published in Ports & Shipping

#Ports&Shipping - UNCTAD Deputy-Secretery at the TrainForTrade port management programme said ports in developing countries must be managed efficiently using modern methods to support international trade and boost local economies.

The Deputy-Secretary General Isabelle Durand was at a coordination meeting of the French-speaking network of the UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which highlighted the challenges ports in the global South face match their importance in the global economy. 

"As much as 80% of the volume of goods in the world are transported by ship," Ms. Durant said at the opening of the session, taking place in Geneva, 9–11 April. 

"In addition to managing the goods they receive on time, ports – which are essential links in the global value chains – must prepare for the effects of climate change, rising temperatures, rising waters and of the emergence of extreme weather phenomena."

The meeting in Geneva of the francophone network is as part of Port Management Week that concludes today. More than 60 participants from 20 countries, are taking part in the event, which is supported by Irish Aid, Dublin Port Company, Port of Cork Company, and Belfast Harbour Commissioners.

TrainForTrade is supported by the ports of Nantes and Marseille in France, Dublin and Cork in Ireland, Belfast in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Gijon and Valencia in Spain.

Port training 

Other hazards include economic and financial instability and threats linked to cybercrime, Ms. Durant added.

With 59% of global exports and 64% of global imports passing through a developing country port, maritime transport and port infrastructure remain at the heart of economic and social development in developing countries.

It takes a village

With a well-organized port sector, trade volumes increase as transport costs decrease, economic competitiveness is boosted, and jobs are created – but modern port management requires that this is done while respecting social equity, preserving resources and respecting the environment. And as regulations evolve, the complexity of managing ports increases.

"The TrainForTrade programme brings together ports from all over the world in a single ‘village’ where information becomes power and a tool for the development and modernization of our ports," Tanzania Port Authority Operations Manager Ebel Mwasenga said.

Building bridges

TrainForTrade helps bring efficiencies to developing country ports by encouraging trainees to look anew at their workplace and devise innovative solutions.

For instance, Togo port manager Koessanh Komlan Amatchoutchoui improved crew well-being and efficiency by building a footbridge in the port of Lomé which helps sailors to disembark while their boats are docking.

In another case, TrainForTrade graduates installed an electronic system for tracking outages on the Intranet network of the port of Dakar, Senegal – more than 21 kilometers of cables and optical fibers. This made it possible to reduce the time it took to identify frequent outages from one day to one hour, increasing port productivity.

In Benin, a new system for assigning dockworkers has proved highly profitable thanks to an optical reading of fingerprints at the entrance to the Port of Cotonou. This resulted in the better filtering of accredited employees, and a more judicious distribution of dockworkers at loading and unloading docks.

The TrainForTrade Port Management Programme also supports port communities in developing countries through networks of public, private, national and international institutions.

"In Haiti, there is no training in port management," Haiti’s TrainForTrade manager Oswald Rousseau said.

Training of trainers

The UNCTAD programme focuses on the development of human resources and fills this training gap.

Training is not only structured around exchanges of experience and best practice between countries of the global North and the global South, but also, thanks to the existence of a solid global network, between countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

UNCTAD also ensures that the impact of its programme is multiplied through the training of trainers, guaranteeing that its effect is felt not just in the same port, but also in port facilities of other developing countries. 

In addition, with information and communication technologies, training can be provided at a distance, allowing a larger number of people to take part at low cost. UNCTAD issues an internationally recognized high-level "port certificate".

Trade, upgrade

UNCTAD has been offering the TrainForTrade training programme to developing countries wishing to upgrade their port infrastructure for greater efficiency and performance for more than 20 years.

Representatives of the member countries of the French-speaking port network – Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Mauritania, Madagascar, Senegal and Togo – have gathered to review training activities in modern port management following a previous meeting held in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in April 2017.

 

 

 

Published in Ports & Shipping

#UNCTADsigning - The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary General Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, will lead the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the UNCTAD, Dublin Port Company and the Port of Cork company.

The signing ceremony next Thursday is to take place at the UNCTAD headquarters at the Palais des Nations, Geneva

The MoU aims to strengthen the cooperation between Irish ports and UNCTAD's TrainForTrade Programme in expanding the activities of the Port Training Programme's (PTP) English-speaking network.

Both of the Irish ports will be represented by its CEO and Directors, respectively, while representatives from various permanent missions in Geneva who are part of the PTP have been invited to witness the ceremony.

 

Published in Ports & Shipping

#DublinPort - Dublin Port Company has welcomed 30 participants from the following African states; Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria as well as the Philippines for the United Nations Port Training Programme.

Trade for Trade will host a training of trainers' workshop for the English-speaking network of its Port Training Programme (PTP). The workshop will be held in Dublin, Ireland in collaboration with Dublin Port Company.

The workshop will provide training to 30 senior port managers from Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria and the Philippines who have been selected to serve as local and regional instructors for the English-speaking network of the PTP.

In particular, the managers will receive training on the content of the first four (out of eight) training modules of UNCTAD's Modern Port Management course. Following the workshop, they will lead the delivery of these modules within the framework of the PTP in their respective port communities.

The programme will be opened by Maureen O Sullivan TD tomorrow at Dublin Port Company's head office, the Port Centre on Alexandra Road.

Minister Joe Costello, Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with responsibility for Trade and Development will close the programme on 3 April 2014. The programme is part of Dublin Port Company's Corporate Responsibility Programme (CSR)

UNCTAD's TrrainForTrade Port Training Programme supports port communities in developing countries in pursuit of efficient and competitive port management practices. In order to increase trade flows and foster economic development, the programme creates port networks, bringing together public, private and international entities.

The aim is to share knowledge and expertise between port operators, and strengthen talent management and human resources development in port communities.
The English-speaking network of the programme (there are also French-, Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking networks) has been active since 2008 and is now in its third cycle.

Ports that have participated in the programme have been from Ghana, Indonesia, Maldives, Malaysia, Namibia, Nigeria and the Philippines.

Irish Aid has provided funding for the English-speaking network since its creation (the African and Asian member ports also contribute financially), and Dublin Port Company has been a port partner of the network since the beginning.

As a port partner, Dublin Port Company hosts training events, such as this Training of Trainers workshop. They also provide the time and expertise of their senior managers, who travel to the member ports in Africa and Asia, where they deliver the different modules of the programme alongside local senior managers (who have been trained as instructors).

The Port of Cork, Belfast Harbour Commissioners and Drogheda Port Company have also joined the network as port partners.

The Port Training Programme's scope and objectives were specifically designed for middle management. On average, 25 middle managers in each member port are selected to participate in the programme per training cycle.

A training cycle consists of 240 hours of instruction divided in eight modules that are delivered over a two-year period. Participants must successfully complete all eight modules and defend a final dissertation in order to receive the UNCTAD Modern Port Management Certificate.

In their final dissertation, the participants identify challenges within their respective ports and propose concrete management solutions. Since 2008, the network has trained 232 middle managers in the participating ports.

The programme's objectives, however, move beyond training. The goal is to assist the member ports in strengthening their human resources development strategies by setting up a sustainable capacity building framework that facilitates the transfer of knowledge from senior to middle managers. Thus, for the programme to be successful there must be a strong commitment and contribution from the member ports' senior managers.

During the first cycle of the programme, UNCTAD sends an expert or a senior manager from one of the port partners, such as Dublin Port Company, to assist in deliver all eight of the programme training modules in the member ports in Africa and Asia.

When a member port moves into the second cycle, this assistance is reduced to 50 per cent, i.e. an UNCTAD expert or senior manager from the port partners is sent for only four out of the eight modules. Outside assistance is reduced with each successive cycle. This ensures that the programme is sustainable and locally owned.

To prepare senior managers from the member ports for their role as instructors, UNCTAD organizes training of trainers (ToT) workshops in collaboration with the port partners. The next ToT workshop will be hosted by Dublin Port Company, from 25 March to 3 April 2014.

During the intensive two-week workshop, 30 selected senior managers from member ports in Ghana, Indonesia, the Philippines and Nigeria will be trained as instructors for the programme. The training will be delivered by UNCTAD experts and senior managers from Dublin Port Company, Port of Cork, Belfast Harbour Commissioners and Drogheda Port Company.

Since the inception of the English-speaking Network of the Port Training Programme in 2008, 192 senior managers have been trained as instructors, replicating the training for 282 middle managers in the port communities of Africa and Asia.

 

Published in Dublin Port

#PortTraining – UNCTAD's TrainForTrade Port Training Programme have agreed to implement a third cycle of the course following a conference held in Belfast earlier this month.

Forty-three representatives from UNCTAD, the Irish Government, and the Irish port partners - Dublin Port Company, Port of Cork and Belfast Harbour Commissioners - as well as from port communities in Bangladesh, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania, attended the 2013 International Coordination Meeting for the English-speaking network of the TrainForTrade Port Training Programme.

Participants assessed the results of the second cycle (2011-2013), and evaluated the scope for strengthening and expanding the programme. The review session was staged in cooperation with Belfast Harbour Commissioners.
For more on this story visit the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD website.

 

Published in Ports & Shipping

#TrainForTrade- UNCTAD Candidates have successfully completed final dissertations last month for the TrainForTrade Port Training Programme in Ghana and which also includes Tanzania, as previously reported on Afloat.ie

The dissertations were defended before panels of experts that included representatives from UNCTAD and the Port of Cork, as well as senior managers from Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA).

The graduates are middle-level managers from public and private entities operating at the ports of Tema and Takoradi.

UNCTAD's Port Training Programme supports port communities in developing countries in their efforts to provide efficient and competitive port management services.

The English-speaking network of the Port Training Programme is supported by Irish Aid, the Dublin Port Company, the Port of Cork, and the Belfast Harbour Commissioners.

 

Published in News Update

#UNCTADTanzania - Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Joe Costello has completed a visit to the United Republic of Tanzania at which he reviewed the impact of the UNCTAD Port Training Programme.

Ireland has provided extensive support over the years for the Port Training Programme, which is part of UNCTAD's (United Nations Conference on Trade & Development) TrainForTrade technical assistance programme.

Financial support for the training is provided by Irish Aid - the Irish Government's programme of assistance to developing countries. Supporting the programme are the Dublin Port Company and the Port of Cork in addition to the Belfast Harbour Commissioners.

During his official visit to the East African nation, the Minister, met with representatives of Tanzania Ports Authority and toured the port of Dar es Salaam. He and his delegation were received by the Acting Director General of Tanzania Ports Authority, Mr. M. J. Kipande, and his management team.

Published in News Update
Since mid-October port authorities in Belfast, Dublin and Cork have been training senior managers from Afrian, Asian and Latin American ports. The training workshops are in collaboration with Irish Aid and UNCTAD's 'Train-for-Trade' (TFT) Port Training Programme.
The workshop are tailored to 25 senior managers from these global ports, which seeks to improve port efficiency and foster international trade. In addition it is to reinforce technical and managerial skills of a port community's human resources.

The Port Training Programme is comprised of a "Modern Port Management" course and a final dissertation. During this training of trainer's workshop, the senior managers will be trained as local instructors on Modules 1-4 of the "Modern Port Management" course.

On completion of the workshop which ends today, they will serve as local instructors for their respective ports, collaborating with UNCTAD specialists and transferring their acquired knowledge to the participants of the TFT Port Training Programme.

UNCTAD stands for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development which was launched in 1998. The new Train-For-Trade programme strengthens national and regional human and institutional resources for trade and investment as a key to growth for UNCTAD member countries, particularly the least developed ones (LDCs).

Published in Ports & Shipping

Royal Cork Yacht Club

Royal Cork Yacht Club lays claim to the title of the world's oldest yacht club, founded in 1720. 

It is currently located in Crosshaven, Co. Cork, Ireland and is Cork Harbour’s largest yacht club and the biggest sailing club on the south coast of Ireland.

The club has an international reputation for the staging of sailing events most notable the biennial world famous Cork Week Regatta.

In 2020 RCYC celebrated its tricentenary under its Admiral Colin Morehead.

Royal Cork Yacht Club FAQs

The Royal Cork Yacht Club is the oldest yacht club in the world, and celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2020. It is one of the World’s leading yacht clubs, and is in the forefront of all branches of sailing activity. It is the organiser of the biennial Cork Week, widely regarded as Europe’s premier sailing event. It has hosted many National, European and World Championships. Its members compete at the highest level in all branches of sailing, and the club has a number of World, Olympic, continental and national sailors among its membership.

The Royal Cork Yacht club is in Crosshaven, Co Cork, a village on lower Cork Harbour some 20km south-east of Cork city centre and on the Owenabue river that flows into Cork Harbour.

The club was founded as The Water Club of the Harbour of Cork in 1720, in recognition of the growing popularity of private sailing following the Restoration of King Charles II. The monarch had been known to sail a yacht on the Thames for pleasure, and his interest is said to have inspired Murrough O’Brien, the 6th Lord Inchiquin — who attended his court in the 1660s and whose grandson, William O’Brien, the 9th Lord Inchiquin, founded the club with five friends.Originally based on Haulbowline Island in inner Cork Harbour, the club moved to nearby Cobh (then Cove) in 1806, and took on its current name in 1831. In 1966 the club merged with the Royal Munster Yacht Club and moved to its current premises in Crosshaven.

The Royal Cork Yacht Club today encompasses a wide variety of sailing activities, from young kids in their Optimist dinghies sailing right through the winter months to the not-so-young kids racing National 18s and 1720s during the remaining nine months. There is also enthusiastic sailing in Toppers, Lasers, RS Fevas and other dinghies. The larger keelboats race on various courses set in and around the Cork Harbour area for club competitions. They also take part in events such as the Round Ireland Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race. In many far off waters, right across the globe, overseas club members proudly sail under the Royal Cork burger. The club has a significant number of cruising members, many of whom are content to sail our magnificent south and west coasts. Others head north for the Scottish islands and Scandinavia. Some go south to France, Spain, Portugal and the Mediterranean. The more adventurous have crossed the Atlantic, explored little known places in the Pacific and Indian Oceans while others have circumnavigated the globe.

As of November 2020, the Admiral of the Royal Cork Yacht Club is Colin Morehead, with Kieran O’Connell as Vice-Admiral. The club has three Rear-Admirals: Annamarie Fegan for Dinghies, Daragh Connolly for Keelboats and Mark Rider for Cruising.

As of November 2020, the Royal Cork Yacht Club has approximately 1,800 members.

The Royal Cork Yacht Club’s burgee is a red pennant with the heraldic badge of Ireland (a stylised harp topped with a crown) at its centre. The club’s ensign has a navy blue field with the Irish tricolour in its top left corner and the heraldic badge centred on its right half.

Yes, the Royal Cork Yacht Club organises and runs sailing events and courses for members and visitors all throughout the year and has very active keelboat and dinghy racing fleets. The club also hosts many National, European and World Championships, as well as its biennial Cork Week regatta — widely regarded as Europe’s premier sailing event.

Yes, the Royal Cork Yacht Club has an active junior section with sailing in Optimists, Toppers and other dinghies.

Charles Yes, the Royal Cork Yacht Club regularly runs junior sailing courses covering basic skills, certified by Irish Sailing.

 

The Royal Cork hosts both keelboats and dinghies, with the 1720 Sportsboat — the club’s own design — and National 18 among its most popular. Optimists and Toppers are sailed by juniors, and the club regularly sees action in Lasers, RS Fevas, 29ers and other dinghy classes.

The Royal Cork Yacht Club has a small fleet of 1720 Sportsboats available for ordinary members to charter.

The Royal Cork Yacht Club’s Club House office can provide phone, fax, email, internet and mail holding facilities for a small charge. Club merchandise and postcards may be purchased. Showers and toilet facilities are available 24 hours a day, free of charge. Parking is plentiful and free of charge. Diesel and petrol are available on site. Marina berths are generally available for a fee payable in advance; arrangements must be made before arrival.

Yes, the Royal Cork Yacht Club’s Club House has all of the usual facilities, including bars and restaurant, which are open during normal licensing hours. The restaurant provides a full range of meals, and sandwiches, snacks etc, are available on request.

Normal working hours during the sailing season at the Royal Cork Yacht Club are 9am to 9pm daily. For enquiries contact the RCYC office on 021 483 1023 or email [email protected]

Yes, the Royal Cork Yacht Club caters for all types of events rom weddings, anniversaries, christenings and birthday celebrations to corporate meetings, breakfast meetings, luncheons, private dinners and more. For enquiries contact the Royal Cork Yacht Club office on 021 483 1023 or email [email protected]

New members are invited to apply for membership of the Royal Cork Yacht Club by completing the Nomination Form (available from www.royalcork.com/membership) and returning it to The Secretary, Royal Cork Yacht Club, Crosshaven Co Cork. Nominations are first approved by the Executive Committee at its next meeting, and following a period on display for the members, and are reviewed again at the following meeting at which any objections are considered.

No; while ordinary members of the Royal Cork Yacht Club are usually boat owners, there is no requirement to own a boat when submitting an application for membership.

The annual feel for ordinary members (aged 30+) of the Royal Cork Yacht Club is €645. Family membership (two full members and all children aged 29 and under) is €975, while individuals youth (ages 19-29) and cadet (18 and under) memberships are €205. Other rates are available for seniors, associates and more. All fees quoted are as of the 2020 annual subscription rates.

Memberships of the Royal Cork Yacht Club are renewed annually, usually within 60 days of the club’s Annual General Meeting.
For enquiries contact the Royal Cork Yacht Club office on 021 483 1023 or email [email protected]

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