Dubai: A number of experts at the Counter-Piracy conference held yesterday in Dubai highlighted the vital importance of the UAE's efforts to fight the threat posed to maritime trade by pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
Insurance premiums for shipping companies with vessels operating through the Gulf of Aden have risen by 30 to 40 per cent in 2009 and 2010, said Frah Ali Juma, minister of finance of the Puntland State of Somalia.
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He accused insurance providers of exploiting the current situation while bringing nothing substantial to the table in terms of curbing piracy.
It is very important that Dubai and the UAE take the lead in fighting piracy because of the serious threat it posed to security and its potential to fuel money-laundering crimes in the country, the experts warned.
"Dubai is the port city where ransom money demanded by Somali pirates can be laundered. Pirates pose as traders to clean their money through bogus deals. It is an option," Jama said on the sidelines of the conference held yesterday.
The cargo on board the captured vessels is usually of no interest to the pirates, he said. "The pirates don't touch the supplies, whether they are oil or sugar…they are only interested in the ransom."
The UAE has played a positive role in reducing piracy in Somalia by training coastguards and providing speedboats to protect the coastline, he observed.
Development programme
DP World, the third largest global port operator, announced a community development programme in Djibouti worth half-a-million dollars to create jobs, health care facilities and security in a joint initiative with USAID, said Ethan Chorin, senior manager of government relations and global corporate social responsibility co-ordinator with DP World.
The initiative will create a pan-African network of clinics along major arteries linking ports across 100,000 port communities all over Africa, said DP World's CEO.
The cost of piracy has reached a staggering $7 billion (Dh25.7 billion) globally in trade, security and human loss, said Mohammad Abdullahi Omar Asharq, foreign minister of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, during his keynote address. One reason the piracy problem is getting worse is due to payment of ransoms, he said.
There are 1,500 pirates challenging international peace and security off the Somali coast and 1 million sq km of ocean to be policed against the menace, he told the conference.
"We wait to be convinced that the international community has the will to tackle piracy," he added.
