THE THIRD SESSION OF CONFERENCE OF THE AFRICAN MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT MEET TO REVIEW TRANSPORTATION DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea, April 8, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Senior officials and experts from ministries and agencies responsible for transportation from the African Union Member States and other stakeholders are meeting in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in preparation for the Third Session of the African Union Conference of African Ministers of Transport (CAMT), scheduled for 10-11 April 2014, under the theme “Speeding-up Transport Program Delivery for Facilitating Africa’s Economic Growth”.

Addressing the opening Session, on behalf of Dr. Elham M. Ibrahim, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Mr Aboubakari Baba-Moussa, Director For Infrastructure and Energy,highlighted Africa’s economic capacity, demonstrated in its implementation of strong economic growth in many countries, and the regional and continental infrastructure projects linking different part of Africa.

The Director acknowledged that the continent has the lowest rate of access to modern infrastructure of energies, ICT, water, sanitation and transport services, emphasising on the linkages between infrastructure and economic growth.

The Director said that Africa needs to address the challenges of modernization of infrastructure and transport services. In particular, the continent needs to deal with the major issues of innovative investments, participation of the private sector to develop financial instruments of mixing, strengthening institutional capacity, legislative and regulatory environment conducive to investment and coordinated regional and continental of the different parties involved in the transportation sector in synergy. (See the full speech of the Director on the AU website http://www.au.int)

Representing the host country, Mr. Francisco Mba Olo Bahamonde, Minister of Transportation Technology, Postal Services and Telecommunications of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, stressed in his remarks on the importance of the meeting for the success of the Conference of African Ministers, which should have certain critical attitudes in relation to the various problems of the transport sector of Africa’s regional and sub regional areas, to effectively contribute to solve and analyze them from various possible angles in order to get a comprehensive and full vision on the issue concerned.

The Minister added that the conference will “avail an opportunity to have a collective reflection that will enable to enrich the knowledge of the various phenomena of the African transport and the factors that influence them and that will lead us Africans to be more receptive to jointly and severally work for all our governments, public and private institutions and the people to achieve the best results in this sector, reaffirming the links and historical ties existing between them”. (See the full speech of the Minister on the AU website http://www.au.int)

CAMT Third Session aims to review the implementation of the various sub-sector plans of action, target specific outcomes, and identify constraints as well as new challenges to facilitate rapid implementation of transport development activities. It will provide strategic direction to the AU Commission and all stakeholders on the appropriate actions to take for a coherent development of the transport sector on the continent. Additionally, the conference will elect a new bureau to manage its activities during the period from 2014 to 2015.

Over three days, the African senior officials and experts will consider various reports on implementation of programs for road, air, maritime, railway transportation. The meeting will also consider the revised action plans, daft declaration, agenda, working program and the final communiqué of the Ministerial meeting.

The meeting is attended by African senior officials of ministries and agencies responsible for transport regulations in AU Member States, heads of regional and continental transport specialized institutions, AUC, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), RECs, African Development Bank (ADB), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), stakeholders and others.

The senior officials will conclude their deliberations on 9th April and will report their conclusions and recommendations to the Ministerial meeting to be open on 10th April 2014.