O.R International Road Transport Indaba
The Agency hosted an International Road Transport Indaba as part of the planned October Transport month. This auspicious three day event took place at the Capital Hotel, Menlyn Maine. The theme for this year’s Transport Month is; “Together we move South Africa forward” which provided a perfect synergy with the objectives of the indaba – bringing together key industry players in the trade and transport sector with a focus on unlocking Africa’s industrial potential through linking the African continent by means of integrating trade and transport to position the continent as a meaningful trading player in the global economic arena.
The Chairperson of the C-BRTA Board, Mr Mos Ramathe in his welcoming address paid tribute to the late leader of the African National Congress, Oliver Tambo and highlighted that “there is a need for the African continent to realize the importance of linking Africa in order to be able to compete equally with other continents”.
The Deputy Minister of Transport Ms Sindisiwe Chikunga officially opened the Transport Indaba and stated that “ The uniqueness of the Linking Africa Plan is in the fact that it seeks to answer questions beyond the physical barriers that are constraining the linking of this continent. Linking Africa is essentially concerned with trade and transport regulatory issues. The Linking Africa idea is born out of the realisation that for Africa to have any chance of bargaining meaningfully at the level of global value chains, and to trade meaningfully with the rest of the world, we need to earnestly think of our economic prospects beyond the confines of the senseless borders that were imposed on all of us by the colonisers” she further emphasised that “The Cross-Border Road Transport Indaba comes at an opportune time when the continent needs to look to itself to change its current economic dynamic by firstly improving intra-Africa trade and secondly linking the entire continent with its global trading partners. It is only through such that Africa can transform itself into a continent that has the economic ability to compete with other economic regions”
Sipho Khumalo, CEO of the C-BRTA in his presentation of the Linking Africa plan emphasized that ‘’for Africa to achieve meaningful economic growth and industrialisation, transport must be repositioned not just as a servant of trade, but as a twin partner of trade. He indicated that transport must be geared as an instrument for ‘linking’ various disparate, smaller economies of countries in Africa”
The Indaba was graced by the presence of a number of SADC, trade and transport experts and representatives of many other institutions from across the globe, which include the OR Tambo Foundation, Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), NEPAD, DTI, The Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, Transport Certification Australia, African Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Southern African Trade Hub, OGEFREM , and the European Union to mention but a few.
The Indaba was very interactive, discussions centred around the implementation of the Linking Africa Plan. The 3rd day of the Indaba was broken up into three informative sessions that promoted the exchange of information, these sessions included quality presentations and well knowledged selection of speakers and contributors that focused on transport challenges that negatively impact on trade in Africa.
The three streams were
- Transport and regulation
- Trade & transport
- Infrastructure and intelligent transport systems
This well organized high level event was made possible through team work and collaborations amongst various divisions and we hope that going forward the outcomes from this event will help shape and finalise the Linking Africa Plan.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!