In August this year American President Barack Obama
committed to investing $14 billion to boost intra-Africa trade.
Liesl Venter quizzed industry specialists to find out more about
what role Gauteng can play in realising this objective.
FTW: How can Gauteng
entrench itself as a gateway into
southern Africa in the future
and what does it need to do
to ensure it has a competitive
advantage?
Cobus Rossouw, chief
business development officer,
Imperial Logistics:
The effective consolidation in
Gauteng of products destined
for southern African markets
provides a great supply chain
opportunity. This could include
products produced in South
Africa as well as products
imported from international
sources. Competitive advantage
will follow from establishing
an integrated solution that
considers effective demand
management, multi-principal
synergies and transparent
international trade
management. The challenge
is to mature from the current
opportunistic exports into
southern African countries
towards an integrated valuechain
approach where the
development of consumer
demand in these markets is
supported through sustainable
supply chains.
Jim Campbell – independent
technical and management
consultant in Road Transport:
Gauteng is already a gateway
to southern Africa and is central
to the movement of goods and
products on both northern and
southern transport corridors
between SA ports and our
regional neighbours, as far
north as central Africa. Though
comprising only around 1.5%
of the country’s land area,
Gauteng generates more than
one third of the country’s
economy and is also the centre
of some of
the country’s
major
industrial
activities,
including steel
production,
high-tech
products and
a number of
major vehicle
assembly and
manufacturing
facilities.
FTW: What
are the major
challenges
facing Gauteng when it comes to
being a leading regional hub?
CR: The current multi-modal
infrastructure is inadequate,
which means that inter-regional
trade depends largely on road
logistics. More importantly,
the imbalance in product f lows
into and out of markets results
in logistics inefficiencies.
Cross-border trade remains
constrained by
administrative
difficulties,
which is
resulting in
East-West
corridors
becoming more
attractive for
international
trade.
JC: The
province is
landlocked
and does not
sit on a major
waterway as do
some major transport hubs in
other countries, although it does
have SA’s major international
airport and has an important
inland container port. As a
consequence the region is
dependent on existing road and
rail networks for the movement
of goods through it, and also
for inbound and outbound
transport, although these
networks are fast reaching their
capacity limits.
FTW: How can Gauteng stop
itself from losing the logistics
lead that it currently has?
CR: Gauteng has to retain the
capability to import products
seamlessly, which requires
either the maintenance of
inland port status or changes
to customs regulations.
Investment is required in
consolidation facilities and
road infrastructure should
be upgraded as volume f low
increases.
JC: The proposed new highspeed
rail link mooted by
Transet between Johannesburg
and the coast is essential
to avoid future restrictions
on increasing volumes
of import/export container
traffic. Currently the road
transport sector carries
more than 80% of the goods
transported but government
plans include a strong
commitment to transferring
some of this to rail. However,
the reality is that there are
limits to how much of the goods
traffic can be transported by
rail. And while the road freight
industry is able to rise to the
challenge, the existing road
infrastructure may
not, and there is a
view that more major
roads should also be
built to accommodate
increasing commercial
road traffic.
FTW: What do you
think the opportunities
are for the province?
CR: The opportunity
is to leverage the
scale from Gauteng
production,
consolidated with production
in other SA regions and
imported products, to establish
integrated capabilities to serve
southern African markets.
JC: As the strong foundations
of the current Gauteng are
based on the establishment of
the gold mines and supporting
industrial structures well over
100 years ago, the province
should be able to retain
its lead as the business
and industrial hub of
the country, notwithstanding
the potential infrastructure
challenges already mentioned.
INSERT & CAPTION 1
The proposed new highspeed
rail link mooted
by Transet between
Johannesburg and the coast
is essential to avoid future
restrictions on increasing
volumes of import/export
container traffic.
– Jim Campbell
INSERT & CAPTION 2
The challenge is to
mature from the current
opportunistic exports into
southern African countries
towards an integrated
value-chain approach.
– Cobus Rossouw
