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Corporate Brochure
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Having heard so much about the astonishing changes that the Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI) has made in recent years, Endeavour Magazine spoke with company CEO Barbara Monmen to get to the heart of their success story.
CLEARING THE WAY
FOR Trade
WRITTEN BY KATIE RICHARSON
“The Port of Maputo is in an ideal location for exports to
India and the Far East and for transit into the eastern
SADC (Southern African Development Community)
region,” she continues. “However, there have had to be a number
of developments. For example, when MCLI first started, we had no
container lines calling the port, which meant that cargo owners could
not ship containers out of the port although they wanted to, so there
was the typical chicken and egg scenario.”
Until just under a decade ago, infrastructure and economic
development had been a serious cause of concern for the governments
of Mozambique and South Africa. A major hurdle in any real trade
progress was the crumbling rail and road links to the southern city of
Johannesburg. With desires to create new investment connections to
establish their fluctuating economies, the leaders of both countries
decided it was economically and socially important to sustain key
elements of the transport corridor that links the city of Johannesburg
and the industrial heartland of Southern Africa with the Port of
Maputo, the parastatal authority in Mozambique in the southwest
Indian Ocean. Thus, the Maputo Development Corridor was launched
in 1996, and developed as a Spatial Development Initiative (SDI), an
integrated planning tool aimed at promoting investment in regions
of the country that were underdeveloped but had great potential for
growth. An additional awarding of the port concession in 2003 and
an investment of $60m in the port’s rehabilitation, alongside a 20-
year master plan also aims to see a $1.7bn investment in equipment,
training and infrastructure.
“Our task could be really simple,” Monmen says. “We provide a platform for inward investment on the Corridor; removing barriers along it, coordinating and liaising and facilitating the necessary changes to ensure investment and to unlock barriers to trade.”
MAPUTO CORRIDOR LOGISTICS
Establishing Its PlaceThe aim of MCLI as a non-profit organisation is to act as a viable
network to sustain an economically-sound future for all industries
which rely on it. Service providers, stakeholders, and infrastructure
investors from Swaziland, South Africa and Mozambique have all
pooled their resources together in order to secure its promotion and
further development as the region’s primary logistics transportation
route, and are now able to strive for developmental targets rather
than the profit margin. However, it wasn’t smooth sailing to begin
with.
“During the early part of the first decade, there were huge border
delays and terrible congestion which compromised the efficiency of
the logistics chain into the port itself,” says Monmen. “Our original
remit was to promote the benefits of the port on the basis of distance
versus the costs of the logistics chain for products in transit from
the north-eastern area of South Africa. The port also forms a key
departure point for the emerging markets of India and the Far East.”
There were also problems with employee resources; with just a
small workforce it was rather difficult to get things done. “You can’t
manage if people don’t believe in the validity and importance of what
they’re doing and while it is a challenge, the changes are substantial
and you can’t argue with the
results,” says Monmen.
You certainly can’t argue
with the results being generated
by the MCLI. More than $64m
has been invested into the
Port of Maputo since 2003,
and the improvements to
infrastructural development are
vast. New warehouses, tugs,
equipment, operations and quay
rehabilitation related to road
and rail improvements in the
region have all been successful,
as well as updates to the Matola
coal terminal. A further $61m
has been invested into the
container terminal to increase
the capacity for cargo depots
and cranes. Other terminals
dealing in produce like sugar,
citrus, vegetable oils and larger exports like cars and Ferro slabs
are also benefiting. The depth of the channel in the port itself has
been increased to 11 metres in order to provide smoother access
to containers, and beyond the port, transport links on the Maputo
Corridor have been significantly improved, with train journeys
dropping from a whopping 200 hours to 90 hours. All in all, just under
$300m has been invested in the Port of Maputo since 2003.
Competent Leadership As CEO, Monmen is perfectly placed to oversee a smooth
transition and worthy initiative. Her background lies in education; she
worked in the KaNgwane Administration and the Premier’s Office in
the Mpumalanga Government, a province of South Africa, where she
worked on a number of project developments. “Prior to that I obtained
a Certificate in Development Management from the University of
Manchester in the UK, followed by a short spin at the Cabinet Office
in London,” she says.
“My interest in the Maputo Corridor developed while I lived in
Mpumalanga where I worked in the Chamber of Business. I had,
during my tenure, begun to explore business relationships between
Nelspruit in South Africa and Maputo. I joined in 2006 as the chief
MAPUTO CORRIDOR LOGISTICS
operations officer and was appointed as CEO in July 2011.”
Monmen believes having a clear idea of what needs to happen in
order to plan appropriately is the key to the success of a project like
the MCLI, and she feels very strongly about economic development
and the growth of the private sector in the region. “Until there is a
mutual cooperation between the public and private sectors, we’ll
always have an issue,” she says. “MCLI has achieved this cooperation
to a considerable extent.”
Looking Forward “We want to raise the profile of the Corridor in the SADC (the
Southern African Development Community) region generally,
and we are particularly keen to deepen our collaboration with the
government of Swaziland,” Monmen says. “For the moment we face
the challenge that the majority of trade along the Corridor tends to be
one way, moving from South Africa to Mozambique. To fully capitalise
on what the Corridor is capable of we need to have more growth in
bi-directional movement and an increase in the usage of the Corridor
as a key transit route into the SADC region.”
The on-going success of MCLI and the determined work of
Monmen and her team have culminated in a highly productive
level of investment into the region, as well as making it easier for
the necessary requirements to be handled by stakeholders and
governmental departments. The efforts from all parties has enabled
a positive and productive direction for the company and Monmen
is quick to recognise the achievements: “Thanks to the significant
investment over the last decade, the Maputo Corridor has seen
incredible opportunities for growth and this will have a consequential
knock on effect when the region moves towards a free trade area,” she
says. “The drive towards borderless trade on our corridor is a passion
that we share with COMESA (the Common Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa), EAC (the East African Community), SADC, the
AU (African Union), and NEPAD (the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development).
“It is only through the continued partnership of users and service
providers, including public sector agencies, that this corridor will
reach its full potential as an efficient, predictable, and reliable logistics
route servicing the region,” she concludes.
As a result of efficient management and timely investment,
notable growth in the project has already delivered impressive results
in the trade facilitation system. Coupled with effective collaboration
and partnerships, MCLI’s projected figures include a cargo volume
increase to more than 48.6m tonnes by 2030 and an extension for
the Maputo Port Development Company to 2043. All in all, MCLI
continues to hold its claim as a very efficient and powerful working
machine.
“The Port of Maputo is in an ideal location for
exports to India and the Far East and for transit into the eastern SADC (Southern African Development Community) region.”
www.littlegatepublishing.com
MAPUTO CORRIDOR LOGISTICS
0027 13 755 6025
WWW.MCLI.CO.ZA
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