HARARE, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Friday called for improved border efficiency along its major trade corridor to boost regional trade.

Speaking at the launch of the Time Release Study Report conducted along the SADC Regional North-South Trade Corridor in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, Alcides Monteiro, senior program officer for customs at the SADC Secretariat, urged the rigorous implementation of various trade facilitation measures, including both soft and hard infrastructure, to enhance intra-SADC trade, which currently stands at 23 percent.

SADC and other regional blocs proposed the SADC Regional North-South Trade Corridor to connect several SADC countries and eliminate cross-border barriers to promote trade and economic growth.

Monteiro, who also serves as task manager of the EU-SADC trade facilitation program at the SADC Secretariat, said that trade facilitation remained poor within the region despite significant investments in infrastructure over the years.

"Despite massive investments that have been made in border posts, seaports, corridor, and road infrastructure in general in the region, the cost of doing business at the ports and border posts has not reduced much because of bottlenecks, cumbersome procedures, disharmonized procedure, uncoordinated operations, silos among border agencies, inadequate infrastructure and non-tariff barriers of different nature in general," Monteiro said.

In a speech read on her behalf, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority Commissioner General Regina Chinamasa said the study identified and analyzed bottlenecks at various border posts along the North-South Corridor.

She said that additional challenges, including the presence of multiple agencies at the same control points, various charges contributing to tariff barriers, and lengthy procedures leading to non-tariff barriers, were also examined.

"The report thus presents insights through its findings as well as recommendations for each of the challenges noted," she said, adding that the Zimbabwean government is making significant strides in refurbishing and modernizing the Chirundu one-stop border post on the country's border with Zambia.

SADC is a 16-member Southern African regional bloc, with member states including Angola, Botswana, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)