Wezi Tjaronda
10 May 2004
Windhoek — NAMIBIA'S quest to become a SADC gateway to Europe and the Americas for its landlocked neighbours is gaining momentum. With the Sesheke bridge due to open next week, the Walvis Bay Corridor Group went on a fact-finding mission to Zambia recently where they generated a lot of interest.
Frank Gschwender, Business Development Executive of WBCG, said this week the corridor infrastructure was in excellent condition and the bridge would provide the first-ever direct country-to-country connection between Namibia and Zambia.
Presently, Zambia uses Dar-es-Salaam and Durban for its exports, which is far from Lusaka as well as the Copper Belt.
Through the corridor, Zambia has an opportunity for an alternative route for the country, which has the United Kingdom as its main trading partner. At the moment, Zambia has reported an increase in its mining activities and may need a west-bound export route for its products while the Zambia's Farmer's Union, which represents cotton, tobacco, sugar and coffee producers, has indicated interest in utilising the corridor.
The opening of the bridge is to improve the utilisation of the corridor, which has been underutilised because of the absence of a bridge between Zambia and Namibia. Previously, a ferry was used to transport goods and people across the Zambezi River.
The fact-finding mission included members of the private and public sectors such as Namport, the Department of Customs, and forwarding and trucking industries. The trip, according to Gschwender, included the inspection of infrastructure along the entire Trans-Caprivi route, a presentation of what Namibia's transport industry has to offer to the Zambian business community, meetings with public sector representatives, consultations with private sector representatives such as the Chamber of Mines, and the Farmers' Union and also business-to-business meetings.
Gschwender said the mission found out that the infrastructure in the corridor was in excellent condition, as of the 2 100 km from Walvis Bay only 100km needed to be upgraded.
The Zambian transport officials committed themselves to establish a management committee (Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lumbumbashi Committee) to work towards simplifying and harmonising cross-border transport regulations.
The Zambian customs representatives on the other hand committed themselves to implement a one-stop border concept and to simplifying customs procedures and the introduction of a single administrative document.
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