Discussing ways to enhance cooperation between the Yemeni Red Sea Ports Corporation and UNICEF

 

A meeting at the Yemeni Red Sea Ports Corporation , Tuesday 27-3-1443 AH corresponding to 2-11-2021 AD, chaired by the Vice-Chairman of the Corporation’s Board of Directors, Eng. Yahya Abbas Sharaf El-Din, discussed ways to enhance cooperation between the Corporation, the sectors operating in the port of Hodeida and UNICEF.

The meeting, which included the Director of the Standards, Metrology and Quality Control Authority, Engineer Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Dawla, and the Director of Procurement and Logistics Andrei Demidovich, touched on the facilities provided by the Corporation to the organization, and the repercussions of the continued blockade of the US-Saudi aggression on the Corporation’s ports, piracy, the detention of oil derivatives ships and the increasing suffering of citizens.

At the meeting, Eng. Sharaf El-Din stressed the Foundation’s keenness to provide all facilities that would help UNICEF and other organizations to carry out their work to serve the Yemeni people.

He reviewed the size and quality of the challenges and burdens imposed on the Yemeni people and the institution since the start of the aggression in March 2015, and the continuous escalation witnessed by the continuation of the aggression and its siege, which has exacerbated the human tragedy, which is the worst in the world.

He pointed to the humanitarian challenges imposed by the aggression and the siege, and the tragedies it entails, whose effects are increasing day by day on the overall lives of citizens.

He referred to the moral, humanitarian and legal responsibility of the United Nations with all its organizations and bodies and the UN Security Council to end the aggression and siege, as well as the international community to put pressure on the coalition of aggression and the countries supporting it.

The Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Red Sea Ports Corporation confirmed that the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism was the one who legitimized the blockade of the Corporation’s ports through the complex procedures that the materials imported into the Corporation’s ports pass through.

Pointing out that 70% of the relief and humanitarian materials arrive through the ports of Hodeida and Saleef.

Meanwhile, the director of the Standards and Metrology Authority, the General Authority for Standardization, Metrology and Quality Control, pointed out that workers in the various sectors in the port of Hodeida carry out their duties in a transparent and professional manner in accordance with the laws and regulations governing the safety of the beneficiaries of the materials that are imported through the ports of the institution.

The state engineer stressed that the delay in releasing the incoming shipments to relief and humanitarian organizations is due to reasons including the incompleteness of the documents and pledges necessary for these incoming materials and the non-conformity of those materials with international specifications and standards and the supply chain (transportation – storage) until those materials reach the beneficiaries, especially the materials related to children, in addition There are partial problems with the imported product, which needs a sorting and separation process, and this requires a period of time depending on the size of the incoming shipment.

For his part, the Director of Procurement and Logistics at UNICEF valued the cooperation of the leadership of the institution and the sectors operating in the port of Hodeida and the facilities it provides to its clients.

He expressed the organization’s aspiration to raise the ceiling of humanitarian and relief assistance to 100% through the foundation’s ports.

Demidovich pointed to UNICEF’s interest in strengthening coordination with the Foundation and searching for a smooth and easy joint mechanism that reduces expenses and ensures easy access to materials to the targeted, stressing that all the measures taken by the Standards Authority are to ensure the safety of incoming materials and their safe arrival to the beneficiaries.

The meeting was attended by the directors of all docks and yards in the corporation, Khaled Hamid, the container terminal, Captain Mohamed Al-Says, the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mohamed Hussein Rassem, the director of the office of the vice chairman of the board of directors, Wadih Al-Naimi, the chief public relations specialist Ahmed Hatem, the organization’s logistics official, Yasser Al-Azazi, and the operations officer, Abdul Salam Qassem.

The delegation of the organization visited a number of storage hangars in the port of Hodeida and was briefed on their readiness, expressing their desire to use one of them for the storage process.