TRANSPORT ministers from five countries in East and
Central Africa who formed the Central Corridor Transit Transportation
Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA), have launched the first ever acceleration process
of the high level investors’ forum to
speed up the transitional infrastructure development for the great Lakes
region. CCTTFA countries which include Tanzania, DCR, Burundi, Rwanda and
Uganda ratified an agreement of facilitating infrastructural development along
the central corridor zone since its establishment in 2006 . The agency was
formed with a view to ensure that cargo clearances are efficient and transport
costs are minimized to ensure logistics efficiency and competitiveness. The
Minister for Transport Samwel Sitta said in Dar es Salaam last Friday that, the
process will open up an avenue for international investors who are willing to
come and invest in infrastructure for which the agency was formed that includes
port, railways and road infrastructure within the Central Corridor zone. He
told a press conference after a two hour closed door meeting of CCTTFA country
transport ministers and their representatives that the aim is to ease
transportation infrastructure within the central corridor zone which starts
from Dar es Salaam port and moves along the central railway line up to Kigoma
and across Lake Tanganyika to the neighboring DRC country.
Another area of
investment within the corridor he noted would include road infrastructure and
ports including the dry port of Isaka in Shinyanga region currently under
construction to receive transit cargo to
be destined for Rwanda and Burundi countries respectively. Minister Sitta
further noted that, transport facilitation programme is also in line with the
agreement earlier ratified by five East African countries under Single Customs
Territory (SCT) with a view to facilitate the accessibility of their exports
and imports through Dar es Salaam port. According to minister Sitta, the
yesterday meeting was convened also in preparation for the investors’ forum
which will be held back to back with the central corridor Presidential Round
Table (PRT) on March 25th later this month in Dar es Salaam, and the
event will be attended by Heads of States of CCTTFA member states. He further
elaborated that, the five Presidents of member countries will engage themselves
to discuss matters concerning with the transportation within the corridor and
among other activities, they will also inaugurate a block train that will carry
cargo to their respective countries. “Presidents of Rwanda, DRC and Burundi
will flag off a block train one after the other that will transport cargo to be
destined to their respective countries”, he said adding that the event will
take place at Dar es Salaam main Railways Station. It can be recalled that, the Central Corridor
Acceleration Process was launched in Davos in January 2014 during World
Economic Forum (WEF) meeting. The programme seeks to accelerate infrastructure
investments through Private Sector Participation. The central corridor was
selected as the pilot project out of 51 projects under programme for
Infrastructure Development in Africa-Priority Action Plan (PIDA-PAP)
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