Southern Africa`s Trans Kalahari Corridor a popular route
TRAFFIC volumes on the Trans Kalahari Corridor have grown from a low of 15 per cent to 60 per cent since its inception in 2003, Minister of Works and Transport Erkki Nghimtina said yesterday.
Opening a meeting of the three countries’ Ministers of Works, Transport and Communication, Nghimtina said the corridor is a manifestation of the commitment of Namibia, South Africa and Botswana and unity of purpose in pursuit of economic growth and development.
“As developing countries, we are most challenged, particularly as a result of remoteness from international markets, high transit costs, unfavourable terms of global trade, limited investment in infrastructure development and maintenance as well as policy and regulatory related dilemmas, amongst others. Our share in the world trade also remains dismal over the past few years,” said the Minister.
The three ministers issued a joint statement at the conclusion of the meeting, reaffirming their governments’ commitment to funding the Trans-Kalahari Corridor’s (TKC) management committee and its operational structures in order to help ensure the full realisation of the corridor’s performance areas.
The three ministers, namely Nghimtina, Frank Ramsden of Botswana and South Africa’s Sbusiso Ndebele said “notable key deliverables with both the regional and international impact include the streamlining of legislation and harmonisation of customs’ procedures to facilitate transit of traffic along the corridor, and the successful introduction and implementation of a single administrative document (SAD 500) which replaced multiple customs’ forms, with the resultant substantial reduction of costs associated with the preparation and production of such documentation.”
Other notable key deliverables is the extension of border operating hours from 22h00 to 00h00, and this allows the flow of traffic, which in turn increases throughput, optimises load efficiency and turn-around time.
The three ministers further stated that some substantial work on key additional trade, transport and passenger facilitation initiatives are at an advanced stage, and these include, amongst other things, the accreditation of authorised economic operations (AEO), which offer compliant clients incentives of self-regulation. – Nampa
Credit: www.namibian.com.na