MCLI to strengthen cross-boarder trade
The MCLI's Stakeholder Forum is a platform which provides concrete information to stakeholders by ensuring high level input by key role-players on the corridor and creates an effective mechanism for stakeholders to raise both operational and strategic issues impacting on trade on the corridor.
RESSANO GARCIA – The Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI) is anticipating that Mozambique Customs will address the processing of road-cargo manifests at the KM4 terminal at the Ressano Garcia Border Post.
This was revealed at a stakeholder’s forum hosted by the MCLI at the Emnotweni Arena in Mbombela last week.
It is hoped that the improved procedure will improve clearing times and reduce delays currently being experienced at the KM4 Cargo terminal at Ressano Garcia.
The Maputo Corridor is an important logistics trade route for mineral bulk cargo, vehicles and general cargo moving in transit out of the port of Maputo, or destined for the Mozambican market.
MCLI is a corridor management institution which facilitates trade between the corridor countries of Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa.
It has been instrumental in ensuring that the Maputo Development Corridor (MDC), which was launched by the governments of South Africa and Mozambique in 1996, has delivered on its initial objectives of ensuring that investment in infrastructure enables trade and sustainable economic growth in the region.
According to Ms Barbara Mommen, chief executive officer (CEO) of MCLI, the initiative does not necessarily focus on local business only, but creates an enabling environment for trade.
“When the region is able to trade effectively, then the economies of the service nodes along the corridor also benefit from the spin-offs of efficient trade and transport,” she said.
The Maputo Corridor is a major import and export route connecting the north-east provinces of South Africa with the capital and main port of Mozambique.
“We hope to find solutions to issues affecting trade, as well as to work in a cooperative partnership with all stakeholders to bring improved efficiencies and cost effectiveness to logistic supply chains,” she said.
Since its establishment in 2004, MCLI’s mandate was to address the bottlenecks to trade on the Maputo Corridor and to work together with stakeholders to find solutions.
The forum also allows stakeholders from the public and private sector to meet and deal with bottlenecks, tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and any issues affecting the efficient movement of cargo on the Maputo Corridor.
The forum was attended by over 100 corridor stakeholders, including infrastructure investors, service providers and stakeholders from Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland who have a common interest in trade on the Maputo Corridor.
As a development initiative, the MDC also plays a vital role in making regional integration a reality and in contributing to increased trade and investment in the region.
The African Development Bank has previously highlighted the MDC as the most successful regional interconnection initiative in sub-Saharan Africa.
The MCLI’s Stakeholder Forum is a platform which provides concrete information to stakeholders by ensuring high level input by key role-players on the corridor and creates an effective mechanism for stakeholders to raise both operational and strategic issues impacting on trade on the corridor.
MCLI’s role is to ensure that these issues are reported to the relevant role players, and that the issues are reported, thus enabling accountability in the resolution of corridor related issues.
The Maputo Corridor remains one of the most strategic transport routes in SADC and has been central to the economic growth of the region over the past two decades.
