Dry port project picks up after bureaucratic delays

MBONGENI MGUNI
Staff Writer | Friday June 4, 2010 00:00

 

The Transport Hub is overseeing the development of the dry port that stems from a 2006 meeting of the heads of state of Botswana and Namibia. In 2008, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the project under which Namibia granted Botswana a 50-year lease for a 36, 233-square metre piece of land on which to develop the dry port.

The dry port, which will give Botswana access to the Atlantic Ocean, is intended to boost Botswana's exports to Europe by cutting time and costs associated with South African ports the country currently uses. These exports include base metals and beef that form a significant part of the P29.3 billion value of exports recorded last year.

Yesterday, Transport Hub officials said a change of guard earlier in the year had caused delays in the assessment of consultants' initial reports on the dry port. Louis Malikongwa is Acting Coordinator at the Transport Hub after the founding coordinator, Gerald Thipe, left earlier in the year. While Botswana is still finalising studies around the project, Zambia - which has also been granted a lease at Walvis Bay - started construction of its dry port earlier this year.

Malikongwa said in an interview that focus was currently on issues raised in a draft report submitted by consultants last April. He said after the draft was submitted, submissions were received from other stakeholders and a reference group formed to analyse them and then produce a final report for Government's approval. 'When the consultants submitted the report, the previous guard was moving out of office,' Malikongwa said. 'We lost a bit of time - about a month and half - but everything will soon be on track.'

He explained that the consultants charged with studying the development of the dry port had raised several issues that needed discussing and resolving.

'The consultants are guiding us on how the port should be developed,' he went on. 'It should not be Government going there alone when the private sector can come in. The consultants are looking at how we want to run the port; they are coming up with alternatives on how to operate it, finance it and make it attractive to our trading partners.'

The Transport Hub and other stakeholders are considering whether the dry port will require a governing authority or one of the parastatals will be tasked with administering it. Alternatively, tenders for its administration could be invited from the private sector.

'As a result, we cannot at this stage say when we will start construction,' Malikongwa said. 'We have asked our consultants to re-submit a new schedule and new timelines for the project. We should have a final report in two to three months. The report will then be studied by Government for approval.'

Having a dry port is timely for Botswana whose reliance on South African ports was once again severely tested by recent industrial action in that country. Besides, importers and exporters are keen to move away from South African ports due to long turnaround times.