2016-05-20Staff Report 2 Lüderitz The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Willem Goeieman, says he is humbled by being tasked to lead Namibia as a logistics hub for the southern African region. He says the Namibian Government and indeed the ministry have in mind, for starters, the development of a Logistics Master Plan which will serve as a roadmap for the realisation of this very important dream. Goeieman made the remarks through the Director of Transportation, Policy and Regulation Cedric Limbo who spoke on his behalf during the Trans-Oranje Corridor Development Initiative meeting held in Lüderitz on Tuesday. The Trans-Oranje Corridor is one of the oldest corridor routes in Namibia, which links the port of Lüderitz to the Northern Cape Province of South Africa and the southern part of Namibia to the central northern region of Namibia and with SADC landlocked counties. The port of Lüderitz serves as gateway for the importation and exportation of diverse commodities with a good reliable road infrastructure network and railway line. Namibia desires under NDP4 to become the logistics hub for southern Africa and SADC region, for import and export of goods and services and thus to become a great role player in the supply value logistics network in the global economy. Goeieman indicated the plan would need to be further supported by the corridor and indeed SADC, for it to become a reality. Both the private and public sectors in respective countries need to work together towards the common good of the region, he said. He added that the Namibian Government has mandated the transport sector with two significant strategic areas – public infrastructure under the basic priority areas, and logistics under the economic priority area. In order to achieve the above two assigned mandates both the five years sector plan and the annual sector executive plan have been developed. Goeieman says since the Ministry of Works and Transport is responsible for infrastructure and in this case transport infrastructure, while the ministry will ensure such initiatives, especially the basic enablers such as road and railway networks, are in place to facilitate the movement of goods and services and ensure they are supported fully. “To ensure that such a significant dream doesn’t lose momentum, we need to, as a matter of urgency, establish a permanent secretariat, harmonise our legislation and operation. This is the only way that we will ensure the successes as envisaged in the SADC protocol. This corridor is important to both member states and we cannot afford for it to fail, and therefore, nothing should be left to chance.” Goeieman said the purpose of the Trans-Oranje Corridor is to increase sustainable economic growth, and also to increase employment and wealth creation. Lots of presentations were made by the stakeholders, like AMTA, Gamagara Mining Corridor on volume throughput on manganese in the Northern Cape of South Africa, Customs, Ministry of Works and Transport, TransNamib, mining industries, the different ministries and the private sector. 2016-05-20Staff Report 2
