The long awaited approximately US$120 million port servicing deal between the Government of Liberia and Dutch Port Management Company, APM Terminals, has finally been signed in Monrovia.

Creating a secure and protective corridor at the National Port Authority (NPA) and the seaports in Sinoe, Grand Bassa and Maryland Counties is among three major challenges the current administration at the NPA says it is addressing.

According to Madam Matilda Parker, Managing Director of NPA, the issue of security remains high on her administration's priority agenda.

Although Liberia is compliant to the standard set by the International Ship for Port Security (ISPS), the MD said the seaport of any country still needed to be more secured; as she put it: “When it is not secured, it becomes difficult for that country to be secured.”

The NPA boss, who spoke to our business correspondent earlier this week, said she was working out modalities that would lead to the establishment and installation of surveillance cameras in all of the seaports across the country.

According to the MD, modalities have also been worked out whereby port securities at the entrance of the gate and other entries would have computers to relay satellite video recordings that would monitor the movement of people in and out of the Freeport of Monrovia.

The National Investment Commission (NIC) has called on Russian companies to seek investment opportunities in Liberia.

The Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Richard V. Tolbert, told our business editor in Monrovia yesterday that he met with potential Russian investors in the Russian capital Moscow during his visit to that country last week to attend the 1st Russia-Africa Business Summit.

The two-day Summit, which entitled “Horizons of Cooperation,” brought together high level trade, economic, business and government officials from a number of African countries and Russia on June 15-16, 2010.

The NIC chairman' investment trip to Russia follows a number of investment trips he has made to Spain and India in recent months. “It is very significant that Russia is reaching out to African countries because Russia is one of the economies that are known as the Bric economies,” Dr. Tolbert noted.

The just-ended Russia forum coincided with International Parliamentary conference also hosted by the Russian government.

House Speaker Jenekai Alex Tyler represented the National Legislature at this conference and participated in some of the investment meetings brokered by the NIC chairman.

A 19-man Brazilian assessment team is in the Liberia to explore investment opportunities in the country.