WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/GEN/257
2 July 2001
(01-3294)
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:  French
COMMUNICATION FROM GABON
The following communication has been received from the Sanitary Quality and Inspection
Service of Gabon's Directorate-General for Fisheries and Aquaculture.
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The Directorate-General for Fisheries and Aquaculture hereby wishes to submit a request for
the remainder of the funding for its planned national fishery laboratory.
This project, which is of such great importance to Gabon, is already under way, following a
stage-by-stage approach in line with the financial resources raised to date.  It does, however, suffer
from a financing gap in meeting European Community deadlines.
The project currently has at its disposal a plot of land at Port-Môle in Libreville and
architectural plans based on technical specifications endorsed by experts from the European
Commission's Food and Veterinary Office (FVO).
Although the working drawings for the buildin g are ready, the Directorate-General for
Fisheries and Aquaculture has only CFAF 170 million, allocated from the State budget, available for
its construction, whereas a total of CFAF 380 million is required.  The scientific equipment andmaterial required for the structure to operate in a ccordance with European standards have also yet to
find funding.
It is for this reason, and in the light of the si gnificance of this project, the objective of which
is for Gabon to be included on List 1 of countries exporting fishery products to the EuropeanCommunity, that the Gabonese Government is particularly keen to receive assurance that the World
Trade Organization will be able to assist it in identifying fresh sources of funding for this project, as
follows:
• Funding of up to CFAF 210 million for the laboratory building, which is the most
pressing need at present;
• funding for a mission to Libreville by a laboratory equipment specialist to identify the
material required for the laboratory to operate and to assess the costs involved.
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