The development of functional corridor management institutions is critical if southern Africa wants to grow cross-border trade, according to industry consultant Barbara Mommen.“One of the major concerns is that we don’t have these institutions present in our corridors. This makes engagement between public and private sector difficult and hampers the implementation of regional and national policy - if it happens at all.”Speaking to Freight News, Mommen said while initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) were creating enabling environments for trade to grow, the reality was that unless border posts and corridors were functioning effectively there would be limited benefit in the medium to long term.Systems and processes on corridors needed to work efficiently and predictably all the time, rather than this being the exception. “We need to reverse the scenario where ease of movement and efficient f low is achieved, certainly on the Maputo Corridor, from two days a week to seven days a week. But this is not only a South African issue. “Our corridor governments must take cross-border trade seriously, and must be intentional about ensuring consistent bilateral and multilateral engagement to fix the issues at ground level.”She said the piloting of the Authorised Economic Operator Programme by the South African Revenue Service (Sars) and the Cross-border Road Traffic Agency (C-BRTA) on the Maputo Corridor showed there were significant benefits for users even though some tweaks were still being made to the registration and compliance process. “It is an essential programme and is certainly world best practice for the volumes of land transport moving across the borders in the region,” she said.Mommen said cross-border trade could only grow to its potential if there was effective management in place and sufficient stakeholder engagement between the private and public sectors.“One of the major challenges remains political will. We have suffered from a lack of decisiveness in addressing the issues. “Despite the Border Management Agency (BMA) being established, little coordination appears to be taking place at the operational level. “The current issues are very similar to the issues which have been affecting trade for the past five years,” she said. “The solution is simple. The government must create an enabling environment for trade, and deliver the conditions for efficient cross-border trade. “The borders seem very far away from parliament and the reality of moving our mining commodities to our markets. We continue to experience a lack of efficiency from government agencies at the border posts. Power outages do not help the situation.”The ongoing congestion being seen at the Lebombo border post was but one example. The border post, which experienced complete gridlock several weeks ago has been in the spotlight for some time now. “There have been repeated calls for 24-hour traffic policing to be implemented on the 7km stretch from KM7 to Lebombo, but the apparent lack of budget is held up as to why this cannot happen. “This is a basic and essential service for a national keypoint such as a border post. “It is not unusual for traffic police, right at the point of congestion, to do nothing as the congestion develops in front of their eyes resulting in queues of up to 10km long, as was the case last week and the week before.”Another challenge that would have to be addressed was the perennial problem of far too much bulk being transported by road. “We have seen an increase in average border crossings at Lebombo from between 900 and 1 000 vehicles per day to over 2 000 on average per day.
