Dakar conference spotlights corridor efficiency

ALAN PEAT THE SERIOUS constraints on the Maputo development corridor have now been taken up at a high level of government in both SA and Mozambique, according to Brenda Horne, CEO of the Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI). The main problem, she told FTW, is the limited border commercial cargo clearing hours – which have restricted development of the corridor and the port of Maputo as an alternative seafreight route for SA imports and exports. To overcome this, a call has been made by the MCLI for 24-hour-a-day opening of the border posts. Horne believes that this has been taken a step closer to success, following her visit as a guest of the USAid regional centre for Southern Africa to the Agoa/Africa conference just held in Dakar, Senegal. This allowed the MCLI to broadcast its aims and objectives to an international gathering, and for Horne to be selected as a panellist in the ministerial workgroup “facilitating trade through effective transport corridors”. “Of special importance was the contact made with the deputy ministers of trade and industry of both SA and Mozambique - who have committed to take our mutually shared high level constraint (the limited border post opening) to the respective government decision makers.” Valuable contact was also made with the director of the Botswana-based trade hub – which has been involved in creating the appropriate institutional frameworks for the Dar es Salaam corridor (DC) and the Trans-Kalahari corridor (TKC). A commitment was made to MCLI to include it in the bi-lateral discussions with the border authorities on the border crossing reform matters as well as the high need for the 24-hour border commercial cargo clearing.