Transport sector development partners confab opens

Page 14, April 23/2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

THE Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), Dr E. Aryeetey, has called on the government to incorporate measures that will ensure equity and balance in transportation infrastructure development between northern and southern Ghana into the national transport policy presently before Cabinet.
He said the policy implementation should also be done in a way that would positively impact poverty reduction and enhance income generation in every part of the country on an equal basis.
Dr Aryeetey made the call when he presented the keynote address at the opening of the annual transport sector development partners conference in Accra yesterday.
He noted that although poverty levels nation-wide had dropped in recent years, the rate of decline in the southern part of the country was far better than in the north.
The two day conference, on the theme, “Transport, a catalyst for growth and development”, is being attended by the country’s development partners in the transportation sector, the ministries of Harbours and Railways, Aviation and Transportation, including their various sector agencies, and it is to deliberate on the way forward to make the theme for the conference a reality.
The National Transport Policy document is to underpin investment in, planning and development of transport infrastructure and services in the country.
Dr Aryeetey said it was clear from the rate and level of transportation infrastructure development in the southern part of the country, compared with what went on in the north, that people in the south were bound to be better off than those in the north.
“It is very possible to use road development, for instance, to reduce poverty in an area”, he said, adding that road development had a positive impact on the people around where the road was found.
Dr Aryeetey, however, noted that in drawing up plans for road infrastructure development, there was the need to ensure that the communities through which the road was expected to pass would make use of it to benefit them and the nation at large.
The Minister of Harbours and Railways, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, in his presentation, called on the country’s development partners to critically consider support for the rail sector of the economy.
He said the sector required a huge financial outlay which the government would not be able to fund alone and, therefore, required donor assistance, adding that “the rail sector should not be an allergy for the development partners”.
On development in the aviation sector, the Minister of Aviation, Ms Gloria Akuffo, said the phase III project at the Kotoka International Airport to drive the airport further towards achieving its vision of becoming an aviation hub in the West African sub-region would commence before the end of the year.
She noted that the three regional airports located in Kumasi, Tamale and Takoradi had seen considerable physical infrastructural improvement.
“Safety and security, the bulwarks of aviation, have also experienced some improvement, with the assistance of some of our development partners, although a lot more required to be done if the closely related menaces of terrorism, drug trafficking and other resultant crimes are to be contained,” Ms Akuffo added.
The Minister for Transportation, Dr Richard Anane, for his part, called for greater collaboration between the various transport ministries to ensure effective implementation of the policy when passed.
He said there had been much improvement in road infrastructure in the country over the last few years and noted that a lot was being done to ensure that many more areas were reached.