Resistance to change a major challenge as Walvis Bay gears up for growth

A MAJOR makeover of the port of Walvis Bay to cater for up to four 5000 teu vessels at a time will attract logistics, container refurbishing and related industries, in the view of Walvis Bay Corridor Group business development executive Johny Smith. His confidence is supported by the amount of building activity in Walvis Bay, neighbouring Swakopmund – and the coastline in between. New hotels and bed and breakfasts are being built in Walvis Bay to cater for the demand as the port’s marine engineering services attract more vessels and giant oil platforms for maintenance and refurbishment. The corridor group has the support of government, which is investing millions in upgrading roads, rail bridges and border posts to speed up the flow of goods. Business, for its part, is gearing its own plans for expansion around the corridors. A typical comment comes from Norbert Liebich, director of Transworld Cargo, who says “future growth will come from the corridor.” That growth will be accelerated by the building of dry ports at strategic border posts – and the Namibia/Botswana border in particular, believes Pooven Moodley of Transwide. Plans for dry ports are already in the pipeline, with the Owamboland rail head being an obvious dry port. There are, of course, challenges – one of the biggest being resistance to change. The Namibians are hard at work persuading mine management in Zambia and Gauteng exporters and importers, among others, to avoid the congested and often dysfunctional traditional Indian Ocean ports and to use Walvis Bay when doing business with the Americas and Europe. To date, they’ve managed to get importers from the northern countries on their side. Now the challenge is filling those trucks and containers heading south. They are facing strong competition from South African ports such as Cape Town and Durban, while the upgrading of the Mozambican harbours and the eventual rehabilitation of Luanda and particularly the southern Angolan ports pose medium to long-term challenges. But, by then, the Namibians plan to have the systems and infrastructure in place that will make Walvis Bay the preferred port for both imports and exports to the west from the region.