Johannesburg — THE maritime industry will become the first transport sector to agree on a plan to empower the industry when it signs its black economic empowerment charter in Durban today.

Signatories to the charter are likely to reap economic returns, particularly when it comes to doing business with government.

Government's guiding principle is to accelerate procurement from black-owned and empowered enterprises, which will grow the industry and increase employment.

The industry has developed a scorecard that covers levels of ownership, management, employment equity, skills development and preferential procurement.

The next challenge facing the committee that drafted the charter will be to implement the programme. The committee has identified the financing of empowerment opportunities and monitoring and evaluating as the most important aspects critical to the successful implementation of the charter.

The targets will be reviewed every two-and-a-half years through an independent peer review mechanism.

Other transport sectors such as rail, bus, taxi, aviation and road freight are still finalising agreements on scorecards targets and other issues of representation.

The maritime sector's long-term vision is to develop SA to become one of the world's top 35 maritime nations by 2014.

Foreign companies with local representation will be encouraged to sell equity in their local operations. If they are unable to do so, they should consider investing in black-owned enterprises.