Strategic vision depends on it Riad Khan … each corridor to be viewed separately. KEVIN MAYHEW THE MAPUTO Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI) has been applauded by the Department of Transport (DoT) as an example to be emulated. “It provides the DoT with an organised representative body,” chief director of national freight strategy of the DoT, Riad Khan, told transport representatives at a South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) meeting in Johannesburg last week. “And this means that when the Department goes to deal with affected parties to develop corridors or nodes, it is at least being informed by strategic vision that is established amongst all the role players in the area. We can then align with this and add our value more quickly.” However, he added that even the MCLI had its shortcomings as its brief did not extend to its members providing funding to achieve strategic objectives, so funding was still a priority. “But it would be useful for all the corridors to have such a cohesive representative body which is far better developed than the others,” he added. He said that the Department would view each corridor separately. Their development included making appropriate changes for them to be price-competitive and efficient. By way of example he said the Department supported East London’s efforts to become more of a motor vehicle and components import and export facility. “It will take a lot of strain off Durban and to a lesser extent Port Elizabeth. It also makes sense as greater use of the corridor will bring down costs as well as reduce damage to an overloaded Durban-Gauteng, which also reduces costs. We will become part of the drive to improve its facilities and also to inform the Rosslyn motor vehicle node in particular of East London’s potential,” he added. Answering criticism about slow implementation and feedback from reports about key areas of the logistics chain – such as air cargo – he said the Department canvassed as much input and analysis as it could. “But some analysis, intuitively, is just not correct when we look at it and we cannot use it as a basis to establish our course of action. This means we have to canvas more opinion and get an accurate reflection of the environment for which we are trying to provide solutions,” he added. He said distorting factors when participants provided input was vested interest and inflated or deflated figures and recommendations to allow for inefficiencies of Spoornet or the ports amongst many others.
