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SADC Executive Secretary Stergomena Lawrence

Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Beira and North-South corridors’ investment meeting began here yesterday with participants expected to strategise on management of regional transport institutions.

The Sadc Beira North-South Corridor draws membership from countries such as Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Institutions making up the bloc are sectoral and regional industry associations such as Southern Africa Railway Association (SARA) and Association of Southern African National Road Agencies (ASANRA) of which the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) is a member; the Federation of East and Southern Africa Road Transport Association (FESARTA) and the Southern African Telecommunications Association (SATA) among others.

The Beira Corridor is defined as the road and railway network anchored on the port of Beira in Mozambique and serving Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia and the DRC.

The meeting began with closed sessions between task force, senior officials and technocrats and is set to culminate with ministerial meetings on Friday when the official opening will take place.

Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joram Gumbo will chair the meeting as the host minister.

The technocrats are seeking to consider the proposed governance frameworks and legal instruments and development of Memorandum of

Understanding (MoU) between the Beira Development Corridor and North-South Corridor.

“Broad consensus has now been reached on the draft MoU but there has been an impasse since 2012 arising from disagreements concerning options for funding institutions and projects.

‘‘The MoU needs to be finalised and adopted by prospective corridor member states,” a programme document indicates.

Zimbabwe and Mozambique already have an MoU for the coordination of the Beira Corridor.

The key sectors considered in the corridor are transport, water, energy and information communication technologies.

The technocrats will come up with recommendations and a report when the meeting ends on Friday.