Moçâmedes — The reforms carried out in the last five years in transport sector have made it possible to increase productivity, generate jobs and regulate the subsectors, said Monday in Moçâmedes, Namibe, the Minister of Transport Ricardo D'Abreu.
The minister was speaking at the opening of the two-day XIV Consultative Council of the Ministry of Transport, under the motto "five years of reforms, towards sustainable development".
The official underlined that the reforms aligned Angola with internationally recognised practices and models, ensuring greater development of the domestic and foreign private sector.
As the minister said, the transport sector worked toward making the cities and communities more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, contributing to sustainable human mobility in Angolan cities.
In institutional point of view, the motivation for the reforms was to set up new bodies, with the aim of adapting the sector quickly and with greater quality to the demands of an increasingly changing market, marked by globalisation and facing the challenge of understanding the best strategies to achieve sustainable competitive advantages at regional and continental levels.
In his speech, he also specified that the sector has to conclude and win, adapting itself to the productive development infrastructures, the increase in the level of competition and the integration of regional and global chains.
He also stated that the transport sector, at this time, is already in its phase of consolidating reforms, having an institutional framework different from that of 2018, with new regulatory and supervisory bodies.
Due to the pandemic, according to the official, the sector sought to comply with the provisions of the National Development Plan and ensure the improvement of domestic mobility in public road transport, as well as in air, maritime and rail transport.
The Ministry of Transport updated the transport legislative and regulatory package, highlighting the laws of Civil Aviation, Merchant Marine, Ports and Related Activities, Bases of Airport Concessions, the Global Strategies of the Airport System and the National Network of Logistics Platforms.
These changes also made it possible to develop, he said, in-depth actions to rationalise, restructure and transform the public business fabric into commercial companies, with the aim of speeding up/adapting the civil, maritime and port aviation, rail, road and intermodal logistics subsectors, the challenges that the country faces and the path it intends to follow in the coming years.
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"The transformation of TAAG, Angolan airlines, from a Public Company into a Public Limited Company, an ongoing process, to a company that we consider to be strategic for the development and diversification of our economy to carry out an experimental flight at Dr. Agostinho Neto (former ANAIL)", were among other advances pointed out by the minister.
In the Maritime and Port subsector, he pointed to the merger between the Maritime and Port Institute of Angola (IMPA) and the Hydrographic and Maritime Signaling Institute of Angola (IHSMA), giving rise to the National Maritime Agency (AMN), as well as the revision of the Law 27/12, Law on the Merchant Shipping Ports and Related Activities, clarifying concepts and reinforcing the powers of the Maritime Authority to the AMN.
The operation of Cabotagem Norte, which interconnects the provinces of Cabinda, Zaire (Soyo) and Luanda, said it was a milestone in the creation of solutions, aimed at mitigating the difficulties and risks inherent in the discontinuity of the province of Cabinda.
The official mentioned the holding of international public tenders for the Multipurpose Terminal at the Port of Luanda, the Concession of the Service for the Exploration, Management and Maintenance of Railway Infrastructures in the Lobito Corridor and the Management of the Multipurpose and General Cargo Terminal at the Port of Lobito, infrastructures that have come to give greater credibility to the sector.
