By LEONARD GRAY

Managing Editor

KENNER — A one-year trade agreement between the Port Authority of Dakar, Senegal, and the Port of South Louisiana is due to be signed today at the World Trade Center in New Orleans.

A delegation from Senegal arrived Saturday at Louis Armstrong International Airport and was met by port officials, including Executive Director Joel T. Chaisson and Commissioner Lawrence Jackson, both of whom traveled to Dakar last November to establish relations there.

&#8220We look forward to business opportunities which will be developing between you and the Port of South Louisiana,” Chaisson told the arriving delegates at a brief reception in the airport.

Arriving Saturday were Mamadou Mountaga Gueye, Counselor-Minister, Chief of Mission for Economic and Cultural for the Republic of Senegal; as well as Mamadou Laimine Kane, chief of protocol for the Port Authority of Dakar, and Moussa Sy, chief of international relations and cooperation for the port authority.

Other delegates were unable to make the flight arriving Saturday.

The delegation’s 10-day visit will include tours of Globalplex, plus site visits to several industrial facilities in St. John the Baptist, St. James and St. Charles parishes, located along the Port’s 54-mile stretch of the Mississippi River.

The trade agreement is part of the Southern U.S. Initiative established to develop the Senegalese economy.

The plan was created by U.S. Global Business Consultants, to build stronger trade, investments, tourism and cultural relations between Senegal and the southern United States.

This developed from President Bush’s 2003 visit to Senegal to encourage closer commercial and cultural relations with African nations.

In 1995, Louisiana became the first state to organize an official SSI trade and investment mission in Senegal, the first in a series of subsequent missions sponsored by the Louisiana Department of Economic Development’s Office of Trade Development. Louisiana was selected due to its shared French heritage with Senegal, once a French Colony.

Senegal is developing its oil and gas potential through the efforts of Petrosen, the national oil company of Senegal.

The west African nation aims to position itself as the hub of oil and gas exploration , with Dakar now establishing closer ties to the Port of South Louisiana.

Already, the Port of South Louisiana has established trade routes to South Africa through Gulf Africa Lines, which provides regular liner service to Globalplex every two weeks.

Chaisson believes the agreement &#8220has great potential for future trade alliances in Africa. GAL’s Panamax service to Durban and Johannesburg in South Africa should provide the Port of South Louisiana with an economic advantage to expand trade routes into Senegal and potentially other nations in the northwest Africa region.”