Regional corridor concept falls short of expectation

For two decades one of the
buzz phrases in the SA freight
and road transport industries
has been “regional development
corridors (RDCs)” – mentioned
with its sister concept “spatial
development initiatives (SDIs)”.
The two ideas sprang up
alongside each other in the early
‘90s – designed to address SA’s
transition from the inward-looking
import-substitution economy it
had become during the apartheid
years. The idea was to focus exportoriented
industrial development in
areas close to or along the coast, to
maximise on transport efficiencies
and position the country to compete
in global markets.
But it soon gained popularity
around the whole Southern African
sub-continent, and more than 20
areas of the region were considered
as being potential RDCs or SDI.
The concepts developed a
whole host of grand-sounding
words supporting them, all of
which promised better times
for the economic future of the
selected regions.
The concept was first put into
practice in the Southern African
Development Community (SADC),
where – for the purpose of linking
transport more closely to general
economic development – the
member countries initiated a
regional SDI programme. The
Common Market of East and
Southern Africa (Comesa) soon
followed suit, fully embracing the
strategy.
Finally, the African Union (AU)
accepted the strategy for the rest
of Africa.
In the meantime, conversations
around the freight and road
transport industries emphasised
the idea that these development
initiatives would lead to first-class
highway systems being developed
across the southern and eastern
African regions – making crossborder
transport in the region easy,
high-speed and cost-efficient.
That, at least, was the optimistic
hope of the times.
But, in the 20 years since then,
where have all these transport and
development corridors gone?
Only in four of them has road
development come anywhere near
highway levels. These are the
Northern and Tazara Corridors in
the northern section – where foreign
aid and expertise has been applied.
For the Northern Corridor, for
example, USAID together with
the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (Nepad) and Comesa
supported a “High Level Workshop
on the Northern Corridor Spatial
Development Programme” in
Kampala in 2008.
The corridor transport route
starts in the Kenyan port city of
Mombasa, going through Nairobi
and into Uganda. There it is
intended to split into two legs, the
first running through Kampala and
into Rwanda, Burundi and DRC, the
second running to Gulu, and then
splitting again going into northeastern
DRC and to the southern
Sudanese city of Juba.
But it’s done little up to now
except develop the road between
Mombasa and Uganda.
For the Maputo and Trans-
Kalahari Corridors in the southern
region, there has been intergovernment
co-operation between
the SA and Mozambique authorities
in the first case, and between
SA, Namibia and Botswana in
the second.
But it’s only in two of the four
corridors that there has been
any really significant “spatial
development”. And, in the first –
the Walvis Bay or Trans-Kalahari
Corridor – this development has
been largely confined to the region
in and around the Namibian port
city of Walvis Bay itself.
But in the second – the Maputo
Corridor – there has actually been
highway development (in the form
of the new N4) and it has proved
to be the only area where a true
SDI has been implemented at the
regional level.
It involved a partnership between
Mozambique and SA – and, at
the time, this represented an
unprecedented level of economic
co-operation between the two
countries. It was first conceptualised
as a transport corridor by the
transport departments of the two
governments, but the eventual
intervention of SA’s Department of
Trade and Industry turned it into the
first of the regional SDI initiatives.
Overall it has been viewed as a
success, and a demonstration of the
potential of transport corridors and
SDIs in Africa.
The corridor links SA’s most
industrialised, but effectively
landlocked northern and eastern
regions (Gauteng and Mpumalanga
provinces) to the Mozambican port
of Maputo, and centres on a system
of road, rail, border posts, port and
terminal facilities.
But, with the exception of the
MDC, SDIs in Africa have not
been able to translate transport
infrastructure development into
broad-based growth – and not even
too much road development has
been activated.
So the Southern African
“highway network” still remains
only a dream.