Development of roads and other strategic corridors vital to creation of more alternative trade route
Walvis Bay Corridor Group (WBCG) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Johny Smith, chaired the East Africa 2017 Conference held in Kenya earlier in June.
As the event provided more exposure for WBCG, it further provided a platform to introduce the development of the African Corridor Management Alliance.
The conference centred on the development of roads and corridors to create socio-economic value to the African continent. It was noted that with the growth in urbanisation on the continent, careful thinking should be dedicated towards developing urban city centres, whilst balancing the movement of people and goods between roads and railways.
Although the conference covered topics mainly from East Africa, it also integrated topics on Corridor Development, Road Safety, Public Private Partnerships (PPP), the Importance of Maintaining Roads and Best Practices to follow within the industry.
Several resolutions of the conference included the major need to develop alternative roads and corridors to reduce the cost of doing business in Africa. Additionally, to be able to develop safe and appropriate roads, Namibia needs to ensure the advanced planning of projects to develop appropriate options and models through PPP’s.
The Permanent Secretary from the Ministry of Works and Transport, Willem Goeiemann also participated at the conference. As the keynote speaker of the session, Goeiemann spoke of the hottest transportation infrastructure projects in Namibia with special reference to the Port of Walvis Bay, the Port of Luderitz, Railway Lines within Namibia, the Hosea Kutako International and Walvis Bay Airports and the commuter Rail Projects.
Meanwhile, the conference also highlighted the strong need to ensure the development of strong institutions to support the development of infrastructure in the long term as well as the need to create PPP’s to develop long-term infrastructure such as roads and other strategic corridors in order to create more alternative trade routes on the African continent.
