世界银行-克服南部非洲绿色、有韧性、包容性和高效区域贸易走廊的障碍（英）-2024-180页_8mb

Summary of Overcoming the Barriers to Green, Resilient, Inclusive, and Efficient Regional Trade Corridors in Southern Africa

Core Content

This report, prepared by the World Bank in 2024, focuses on the challenges and opportunities for improving regional trade corridors in Southern Africa with an emphasis on making them green, resilient, inclusive, and efficient. It provides an in-depth analysis of the current state of transport and trade networks, identifies barriers to integration, and proposes an action plan to enhance connectivity and trade facilitation.

Main Findings

• Integration Challenges: Many Southern African countries face integration challenges due to their small size, fragmented domestic markets, high unemployment and poverty rates, a large informal sector, and overreliance on primary commodities.
• Population and Landlocked Status: Over half of SADC countries have populations under 20 million, and one-third are landlocked, relying heavily on neighboring countries for access to global markets.
• Transport Infrastructure Condition: Although there have been improvements in key trading corridors, the overall trend in network condition remains negative, with infrastructure slowly deteriorating.
• Trade and Transport Costs: High transport and trade costs are a major obstacle to economic competitiveness and regional integration.
• Climate Vulnerability: Southern Africa's trade corridors are vulnerable to climate change impacts, including extreme heat, flooding, and wind events, which can disrupt transport links and increase operational risks.
• Border Crossing Issues: Border crossing times are a critical bottleneck, with significant delays affecting the efficiency of regional trade.
• Social Costs: The report highlights the social costs of transport, including road safety concerns, HIV/STIs prevalence, and human trafficking in corridor communities.
• Financing Challenges: Sustainable financing for regional transport and trade networks remains a challenge, with limited domestic and international funding sources.
• Enabling Reforms: The implementation of trade facilitation measures, particularly under the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), is essential but lagging in many countries.

Key Barriers and Enabling Reforms

• Physical Barriers: Poor infrastructure quality, long distances, and insufficient road and rail capacity hinder trade efficiency.
• Institutional Barriers: Policy and regulatory inconsistencies across SADC countries create non-tariff barriers (NTBs), reducing trade flows.
• Climate Change: Climate risks threaten the reliability of transport links, necessitating climate-resilient infrastructure planning.
• Border Efficiency: Delays at border crossing points are a major impediment to trade, requiring reforms such as the One-Stop-Border-Post (OSBP) system and coordinated border management (CBM).
• Social Challenges: Road safety, HIV/STIs, and human trafficking are significant issues affecting corridor communities, requiring targeted interventions.
• Financing: Limited domestic revenue and reliance on external funding mechanisms like Road User Charges (RUC) and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are key constraints in sustaining transport infrastructure development.

Recommendations and Action Plan

• Infrastructure Investment: Prioritize infrastructure improvements, including road expansion, rail upgrades, and port capacity enhancements, to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
• Trade Facilitation: Implement the WTO TFA to streamline customs procedures, reduce delays, and enhance cross-border trade.
• Climate Resilience: Develop climate-resilient transport systems, incorporating climate risk assessments into planning and investment decisions.
• Social Inclusion: Address road safety, HIV/AIDS, and human trafficking through targeted policies and community engagement.
• Sustainable Financing: Explore diverse funding mechanisms, including domestic road funds, RUC, and PPPs, to ensure long-term financial sustainability.
• Policy Coordination: Strengthen regional cooperation and harmonization of transport policies and regulations to reduce NTBs and enhance competitiveness.
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Establish corridor monitoring institutions and performance tracking systems to ensure accountability and continuous improvement.

Regional Corridors and Projects

The report outlines projects for several key trade corridors in Southern Africa, including:

• North-South Corridor
• Trans-Kalahari Corridor
• Walvis Bay Corridor
• Dar es Salaam Corridor
• Lobito Corridor
• Maputo Corridor
• Beira Corridor
• Nacala Corridor

Each corridor has specific short-term, medium-term, and long-term improvement projects, including:

• Road infrastructure upgrades
• Rail network expansions and modernizations
• Port capacity enhancements
• Border post reforms and digitalization
• Implementation of electronic cargo tracking systems

Conclusion

The report emphasizes the importance of green, resilient, inclusive, and efficient regional trade corridors for enhancing economic integration and competitiveness in Southern Africa. It calls for coordinated policy reforms, sustainable financing mechanisms, and investment in infrastructure to overcome current barriers and support future growth. The proposed Short and Medium-Term Trade and Transport Investment Program (SMTTIP) serves as a roadmap for achieving these goals, focusing on both immediate and long-term interventions across the region.

Key Tables and Figures

• Table 2.1 – Network size by level and country
• Table 2.2 – Rail corridor axle loads and maximum train length
• Table 2.3 – Rail corridor track condition and utilization
• Table 2.4 – Rail corridor expansion plans
• Table 2.5 – Corridor travel times and tariffs per mode (2019)
• Table 2.6 – Border post crossing times (2019)
• Table 3.1 – Rail corridor routes and 2019 freight throughput
• Table 4.1 – Thresholds for transport link disruption
• Table 5.1 – Status of TFA implementation
• Table 6.1 – Road fatalities and death rates (2019)
• Table 7.1 – Known transport PPPs in the study area
• Table 8.1 – Project evaluation decision matrix
• Table 8.2 – Enabling reforms
• Table 8.3 – Border posts and reforms on the North-South Corridor
• Table 8.4 – Railway projects on the North-South Corridor
• Table 8.5 – Road improvement projects on the North-South Corridor
• Table 8.6 – Short-term road improvement projects on the North-South Corridor
• Table 8.7 – Medium-term road improvement projects on the North-South Corridor
• Table 8.8 – Long-term road improvement projects on the North-South Corridor

The report underscores the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to address the multifaceted challenges facing Southern Africa’s regional trade corridors.