TOKYO − Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL, President: Akimitsu Ashida) today announced that MOL attended the departure ceremony for the “South Africa Mobile Library Vehicle Project,” which MOL supports with ocean shipping, held October 1, 2009, at Tokyo’s Harumi Pier.

The ceremony was hosted by NPO Sapesi-Japan (South Africa Primary Education Support Initiative), which jointly operates the project with the South African Ministry of Education. Gert J. Grobler, the Ambassador of South Africa in Japan, attended the ceremony as the guest of honor, along with MOL and the Society for Promotion of Japanese Diplomacy as special supporters to the project.

The project is part of the South African Ministry of Education’s push to raise literacy levels within the country. Retired library vehicles given to the project are transported to South Africa, where they go around to the elementary and middle schools with no libraries, which dot the nation, and lend books to teachers and students.

The MOL Group uses its ocean shipping resources to supply all manner of commodities to people around the world, thereby supporting their living standards and helping boost their industries. We believe our “transport of critical materials” is an important part of our Corporate Social Responsibility activities. Through ocean shipping, MOL continues to cooperate with this project, which helps educate the children upon whose shoulders the future of South Africa rests.

[Background]
MOL has cooperated in the ocean transport to South Africa of 21 mobile library vehicles since 1995.

This time, in the celebration of the 12 library vehicles loaded aboard the Mosel Ace (and one other car carrier), bound for Durban, Sapesi-Japan hosted a departure ceremony. The Mosel Ace will depart the Port of Yokohama on October 7 and is scheduled to arrive in Durban in early November.