Landlocked But not lost

Southern African Transport corridors connecting landlocked nations with coastal hubs.
Tinacho Gerald March 9, 2011

www.capetocongo.com

In a 2006 paper, international economist and Africa specialist Paul Collier discusses Africas geography and its correlation with growth rates and economic performance. He points to the tragic fact that overall the weighted average per capita annual GDP growth was 0.1% between 1960 and 2000. Unfortunately having a lot of resource wealth has not resulted in windfall gains for people across the continent, as a lack of checks and balances resulting from repressive and irresponsible governments tending to their own needs. This is of course the general picture he highlights the success of countries like Mauritius and Botswana, who have both become middle income economies. His thesis suggests that the distinct and differentiated physical and human geography of the continent has had an influence on how countries have fared post independence. For some, having newly tapped resources has resulted in Dutch disease, while others have simply suffered from being landlocked and not countering this relative disadvantage by increasing trade and cooperation with their coastal neighbors. On the physical side he divides the continent into 4 general groups: 1) Landlocked and resource-scarce; 2) Landlocked and resource-rich; 3) Coastal and resourcerich and finally 4) Coastal and resource-scarce. He concludes that resource rich nations on the continent can be combined into one general group as the differences between the two are negligible. Many of the continents people live in landlocked nations that are resource scarce, and the solution for this problem in Colliers view is radical integration of the continents sub-regions. Increased intra-African trade has been touted as one solution to combating the massive economic problems faced by most nations on the continent, but as Gregory Simpkins points out, it is not as easy as suggested. Historically countries have been dependent on exports of primary resources, while importing manufactured and other finished goods from outside of the continent. In other words two countries producing the same type of products will not trade with each other. Fortunately there have been progressive moves on the continent including in the SADC region where secondary and tertiary industry are developing as trade between African nations increase. Collaborations in the SADC region have resulted in several plans to improve integration and cooperation with the goal of forming a regional economic community. One of the means by which this will happen is through transport corridors linking landlocked economic hubs with ports that form parts of the global maritime trade network. Investments have been made in various transport corridors like the Nacala, Maputo and the North-South corridors. Deliberate efforts to improve transport networks allow inland nations to have easy access to the coastal hubs around the continent. Some corridors are better maintained than others, but standardizing and improving

these routes is very important considering the economic benefits of a well integrated transport network. Below is a map of courtesy of Trademark SA highlighting important transport corridors in the region:

John Timbi, the New Economic Partnership for African Developments (NEPAD) transport infrastructure expert suggests that a $32 billion investment in African roads will see a 7 fold return on investment in terms of trade revenue. Below are brief descriptions of southern African transport corridors highlighted above: The North-South Corridor links the port of Durban with central Africa, connecting with the Dar Es Salaam Corridor in Tanzania. This is a result of collaboration between SADC, COMESA and the EAC, in an effort to further integrate sub regions on the way to the formation of the African Economic Community. Durban is one of Africas busiest ports in terms of tonnage and traffic. The Dar Es Salaam Corridor

is run by the DSM Corridor Group (DCG), it has historically provided port access to central African nations Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC partly via the Central Transport Corridor. The Nacala Development Corridor connects the Mozambican port of Nacala with Malawi and Zambia, covering over 1,000km with two one-stop border posts planned. The Nacala Special Economic Zone is also served by the deepwater porter of Nacala with potential benefits accruing to the two other countries in the development corridor. Over $280 million has already been invested in the zone. The Maputo Corridor is managed by the Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI). It comprises of road, rail, border posts, port and terminal facilities. The Corridor runs through the most highly industrialised and productive regions of Southern Africa reaching Africas wealthiest province, Gauteng. According to the European Union Infrastructure Fund, The Beira corridor constitutes the main transport access link between the port of Beira and the interior of the country (Mozambique) as well as to the neighbouring landlocked Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. As an important gateway for cargo transport in the region, an extensive refurbishment of the corridor infrastructure was undertaken in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the improvements have not been maintained, and the port and its access constitute a major bottleneck for regional transport and trade. A rehabilitation of the transport infrastructure of the Beira corridor, including the rehabilitation of the Sena railway line and the restoration of the Beira port access channel to its original design characteristics is currently been undertaken. There have been an alarming number of derailments on the rail line between Mozambique and Zimbabwe, a major cause for concern. According its website, The Walvis Bay Corridor Group is a public-private partnership established to promote the utilisation of the Walvis Bay Corridors, which is a network of transport corridors principally comprising the Port of Walvis Bay, the Trans-Kalahari Corridor, the Trans-Caprivi Corridor, the Trans-Cunene Corridor, and the Trans-Oranje Corridor (not on the map). The Walvis Bay Corridor Groups public-private partnership set-up allows it to pool resources and authorities of both transport regulators and transport operators, thus effectively serving as a facilitation centre and one-stop shop coordinating trade along the Walvis Bay Corridors and linking Namibia and its ports to the rest of the southern African region. The Lobito-Benguela transport corridor links the port of Lobito in Angola with inland Lumbumbashi in the southern DRC. There are missing links on the road/rail

connection. The Trans-African highway plan proposed by the African Union will seek to see a superhighway connecting Lobito and Beira (see map below). The highway will intersect the planned Cape to Cairo highway in Lusaka. The Trans-African highway which is not included in the map above links Cape Town and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The South African government has invested in this network, signing road development deals with the likes of the Zambian Road Development Fund Agency (RDFA). A larger project funded by the African Union, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa is underway, with a network of 9 mega-highways integrating the continents economic hubs. There are 8 other highways proposed by the African Union and regional blocs that set out to improve connectivity across the continent.
Below is a map illustrating the 9 highways that will form the Trans-African highway network:

Tinacho Chitongo is a Harare based freelance writer creating interesting content related to southern African cross border collaboration. You can reach him at info@capetocongo.com