Gauteng pushes gateway agenda

The Gauteng government
is in the process of
redefining its foreign
policy and is seeking
stronger trade ties and closer
cooperation with its African
neighbours.
This will further ensure that
the province maintains its
“gateway into Africa” status on
the continent, said Ismail Vadi,
Gauteng MEC for Transport,
speaking at the annual general
meeting of the Southern Africa
Shippers Transport and Logistics
Council (SASTALC) last month.
“I applaud the spirit of
cooperation that is increasingly
taking place between industry
associations and government
on the continent, but we must
guard against losing our
competitive edge in South
Africa,” said Vadi.
He believes Gauteng is ideally
situated as a trade gateway into
Africa but is in “real danger” of
losing that advantage to other
neighbouring countries who
are pushing their own logistics
growth agendas.
“Gauteng is under-performing.
So is South Africa. We are
currently not competitive. We
need to re-position ourselves
as the gateway and we need to
ensure that our costs, operations
and service levels exceed those
of our closest competitors,”
commented Vadi.