World Bank puts weight behind efforts to speed up cargo at Beit Bridge

Action plan to be put in place Alan Peat WITH THE support of the World Bank, an action plan is to be put into place to reduce the delays at the Beit Bridge border, according to Barney Curtis, who heads up the secretariat for the Federation of East and Southern African Transport Associations (Fesata). “The World Bank has agreed to support a six-month project,” he told FTW. “This will take forward the recommendations to reduce delays made by the now defunct task team and try to achieve maximum implementation of the recommendations. “Any recommendations made since the last meeting of the task team in February will also be considered.” According to Curtis, the project will take all initiatives presently in place at Beit Bridge into account, an attempt, he told FTW, “to ensure that there is as little duplication and wasted effort as possible”. The project report will go to two bodies for implementation, the World Bank and the SA/Zimbabwe joint route management group (JRMG) - the body appointed in terms of the SADC Protocol. Fesata is to manage the project. The procedure is that, once the contract has been signed with the World Bank, the recommendations made by the task team and any made subsequently, are to be collated into an easily understood format. “This document will be circulated to stakeholders,” said Curtis. Curtis will also visit Beit Bridge. The information gathered on the visit will be put together as an action plan for tabling at a meeting of the re-constituted task team, Curtis added. “The secretariat will call a task team meeting at Beit Bridge to finalise the action plan and to agree on a process of implementation.”