CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study,

People have used water to help them transport cargo from one place to another. The first ships were single logs that small cargo was attached to and floated down the river for trade. Eventually, logs were tied together to carry bigger cargos.

About 5000years ago, the first major trade routes were formed between modern-day India and Pakistan along the Arabian Sea. Due to bandits attacking caravans, land travel became dangerous and mariners began to travel on the sea. They used an astrolabe to navigate the waters. An astrolabe is an instrument that predicted the position of the sun, moon, planets and the stars. During the same time, the Romans were developing fleets that could cross the Mediterranean Sea in about a month. They carried low-value goods such as grain and construction materials. It was much cheaper to transport these goods by sea than by land. Romans soon expanded their trade routes to travel the Indian Ocean

During the 7^th to 13^th centuries, the Arab Empire began developing trade routes through Asia, Africa and Europe. The rivers in the Islamic regions were not easily navigable so sea travel was necessary. These advanced vessels called “qaribs”, greatly reduced the amount of time it took to transport goods.

During the Age of Discovery in the 15^th to the 17^th centuries advances in navigation and shipbuilding allowed Europeans to voyage across the Atlantic. This opened up trade routes to Virginia and Maryland for tobacco and Mexico and Peru for silver. Now many goods could be traded between Asia, England, France, Denmark, Portugal, and the Americas. Trade companies developed with the most successful being Dutch East India Company

During the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the Suez Canal opened shipping between Europe and Asia without going around Africa. The Panama Canal connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. During this same time period, cruise ships were developed to carry people across the world. In the late 20^th century, container shipping developed, leading to the shipping industry we see today

Maritime transport, which is an economic activity in which developing countries had not been involved for a long time, generally fetches a lot of foreign earnings for the economies of most countries. According to a generally accepted estimate, sea transport of goods accounts for three quarters of international trade. This brings out the importance of maritime transport and enables us to understand the reaction of developing countries which seek to assert their own share of the market and by actively and equitably taking park in seaborne transport

During the 1972 3^rd United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The group of “77” recommended that developing countries should create, on the one hand, shipping lines in order to be able to take part in the maritime transportation of their home commodities and on the other hand, shippers’ council were tasked with negotiating and controlling the application of freight rates.

Within the purview of the implementation of the UNCTAD recommendations, the Ministerial Conference of West and Central African States on Maritime Transport (MINCONMAR) saw the light of day.  This charter laid down guidelines for sub-regional maritime policy. These include:

The establishment and development of sub-regional merchant fleets in order to boost its participation in the maritime transport of goods;

The creation of national shippers’ councils.

These recommendations prompted the government of Cameroon to resolute embark on the promotion and control of maritime transport. Consequently, the following were created:

In 1974, national shipping lines CAMSHIPLINES by law No.74/19 of 5 December 1974;

In 1975, the Cameroon National Shippers’ Council (CNSC) and in 1984, the National Transport and Freight Forwarders Company (CAMTAINER)

The CNSC was entrusted with the following missions:

Negotiating freight rates with liner conferences and other companies serving Cameroon. Sharing traffic between Cameroonian shipping lines and other shipping companies and promoting the maritime sector.

Gradually, the economic environment changed and maritime transport underwent profound technological and structural changes. Economic globalization and the liberalization of services became requirement for putting in place new economic and social development strategies.

At the same time, the participation of shipper’ councils of the sub-region in various international meetings on maritime transport enabled them to see the need for reforms aimed at further adapting their missions, diversifying their activities and strengthening their capacity in order to better protect the interest of shippers

It was within this context that the CNSC was reorganized by Decree No.98/311 of 9 December 1998.

1.2 Delimitation of the study

The scope of the research is to explore shipping trade and it’s socio-economic implications in the Douala 2 subdivision of Cameroon by putting into place best practices. This research is to evaluate the socio economic implications of shipping trade in the Douala 2 subdivision. It does not take into consideration the environmental impact. The scope of location precisely is the Douala 2 subdivision and it gives us the ability to carry out our study within the time frame and the resources we have at our disposal. Therefore, the central issue in this study is to evaluate the socioeconomic implications of shipping trade in the Douala 2 subdivision.  The research is carried out within a well-defined period of time, which is from April 2021 to June 2021. During this period, we closely looked at how shipping trade can affect the Douala 2 subdivision socioeconomically.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

Although Cameroon serves as a natural hub in the CEMAC region due to its strategic location, inefficiencies at its ports represent major constraint to growth. The problematic issues encompass the following;

Most of these ports lack adequate infrastructure, which is a major obstacle towards achieving its full economic growth potential.

Douala poor infrastructure (superstructure and transport network) is slowing down its economic development and results in a low level of intra African trade and trade with other regions.

 Apart from the physical infrastructure, there is also malfunctioning regulatory systems, poor governance and policies, inequitable distribution of investment project and poor management.

These factors translate into poor port efficiency, and also raising trade cost in Cameroon. In spite the slight improvement in the overall quality of infrastructure, indicators trait those of regional peers. Be as it may, the Cameroonian government is continuing to invest heavily on transport and infrastructure. Several projects being realized in the transportation sector to permit movement of goods and raw materials to the national and intentional market. Major projects in the transportation sector include construction and rehabilitation. It is expected that new ports will facilitate the transportation of aluminum, oil and other raw materials.

1.4 Research question

The above problems enable us to formulate a general question and three specific questions which are going to facilitate my study

General Research question

• To what extent has ship trading at the port of Douala contributed to the socio economic implications to Douala 2 sub division

Specific questions

1. How can ship trading at the port of Douala effectively and efficiently act as a tool for socioeconomic development in Douala 2 sub division?
2. What are the challenges faced by ship trading and its socio economic implications on Douala 2 subdivision?

1.5 Aim and Objectives

The aim of this research is to evaluate the socioeconomic implications of shipping trade in Douala 2 subdivision

The existing situations generated the determination of the main objective of our studies and three specific objectives. The main objective of this study is

• To appraise the contributions of shipping trade to the socio economic development of Douala 2 sub-division

The specific objectives of the study are:

1. To examine the extent to which shipping trade at the port of Douala has contributed to the socio economic development of Douala 2 subdivision
2. To evaluate some of the challenges faced by shipping trade in developing the Douala 2 subdivision

• To envisage potential strategies and measures capable of enabling the ship trading in Douala to efficiently and effectively foster socio economic development in the Douala 2 subdivision