Aviation fund for Africa mooted

'Open skies policy demands greater co-operation' Leonard Neill BEFORE SOUTHERN Africa's skies are opened up for freer movement, greater co-operation between all involved is imperative, says South Africa's Minister of Transport Dullah Omar. Addressing the eighth annual Aviation and Allied Business Leadership Convention in Sandton recently, he said the pitfalls of anti-competitive behaviour must be avoided if restrictions on African air space are to be removed. Aviation officials said earlier that this could be one of the first success stories surrounding the plans of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). The theme at the conference was 'Evolving A Winning Strategy For Africa's Air Transport Industry'. It was agreed by delegates that the liberalisation of air transport in Africa had not developed sufficiently because of problems faced by some nations. Part of the difficulty was a reluctance to clearly express the problems. If followed correctly, Nepad's system of peer review would greatly enhance and speed up development of air transport throughout Africa, said Omar. South Africa, with the backing of Nigeria, will champion the implementation of the decision. A joint action committee has suggested that a core group of ministers should spearhead its prompt implementation through Nepad. A ministerial steering group, involving ministers responsible for civil aviation in South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt and Algeria is to oversee this action. Nigeria's Aviation Minister, Kema Chikwe, told the gathering that lack of capital remained a major handicap for most African airlines, making it almost impossible for them to finance their operations. A new initiative to develop what was termed 'an indigenous fund for aviation in Africa' and to be named Airline Funding Initiative for Africa (Afifa) was introduced. It was suggested at the conference that the African Development Bank and Afrexim Bank be restructured to provide funding for aviation development through soft loans.