Thirty years ago, we officially inaugurated the Lomé Port (Port Autonome de Lomé).

In doing so we greatly boosted our country's development and settled the right way to protect passengers and goods from following risky tracks, which sometimes jeopardized their lives and utility.

We then made the bet that this harbor would fully propel our economic development and operate in the way of regional cooperation, so that our sense of solidarity could be expressed through special conditions offered to in-land countries and give them access to the Coast.

Following a personal will, the Sahelian countries quickly participated in the development of Lome Port almost from the outset. This supranational externalized policy has led to obvious benefits since total traffic has rocketed from 252 600 tons in the port's founding year up to 3 500 000 tons in 1999, and will probably increase to 4 000 000 tons by the end of 2000.

All along this period, the Port Autonome de Lomé has followed the path of continuous economic and technical progress, which finally made it the coastal gateway to its hinterland. Thanks to the Port's management and staff's perpetual commitment this long-lasting attention to modernism never failed. Today the Lome Port complex remains unequaled in Western Africa and highly competitive according to global standards.

At the threshold of the new millennium I would like to congratulate the Port's management for all of their initiatives regarding updated IT systems as well as Web development project. Constant efforts made in terms of equipment, personnel and high-tech acquisitions set good reasons to assert that the Port Autonome de Lomé can be proud of its past and boldly look out for a bright future.

Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe
President of the Togolese Republic