In one of my first more serious posts back in September I wrote about how I experienced infrastructure as one of the key factors in the development of a country which could be influenced in a relatively short timeframe. (In the long run, I discussed back then how I personally saw education as the key factor in the quest towards growth - both economic and social - though I will elaborate on this topic in a couple of weeks time.)
I recently read that in Belgium, caused by the persistent snow and below 0 temperatures, there was at one point about 1000km of traffic jams spread all over the tiny country. This clearly underlines the importance of having a well-established, sustainable and balanced transportation network - which Belgium currently somewhat lacks - and it got me thinking about the state of transport facilities in Mozambique, several times bigger than Belgium, and several times poorer.
Mozambique is huge, and the roads connecting the three biggest cities - Maputo, Beira and Nampula - are for a large part in surprisingly good condition. Traveling between major cities usually entails a trip of more than 1000km, equal to more or less 20h on the road. Still, as long distance busses leave at dawn, they usually make it in a day. There are still some parts of the main road that are in bad to horrible condition, though numerous construction projects - all foreign, almost all Chinese - are under way to improve and expand the road network. (On a side note, I must add that too many of these road improvements are of very low quality, resulting in even worse road conditions less than half a year after completion of the project.)
However, these improvements serve to hardly anything when the means of transportation are quite simply below par (understatement!). The fleet used for public transport consists - bar the odd private company - out of second-hand, third-hand, fourth-hand cars, or probably an even bigger number. Bus breakdowns are therefore just part of almost any trip, so that a 20h bus ride could just so easily turn out to take double the time.
(Mozambique is one of those places where cars come to die, after a successful life in Europe or the States.)
Railroads are an even bigger problem in Mozambique. The country possesses three major harbours (in Maputo, Beira, and Nacala), and in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, it borders three landlocked countries. A recipe for success, you might think? Unfortunately, not really... The lack of a decent railway connection between the harbour of Beira and the heart of say Zimbabwe, means that mass transportation of goods becomes a huge hassle. Not surprisingly, most of the goods in Zimbabwe are therefore supplied from South Africa, even servicing large parts of Zambia and Malawi.
Not surprisingly, and nothing too soon, linking these harbours with more centrally located areas by improving the existing railroad has moved up the development of infrastructure agenda, with improvements on the 250km stretch from Beira to the border slowly getting under way.
For me, a well established and sustainable transport infrastructure is therefore a necessary component of a successful growth strategy. However, I don’t see it as a cause of growth, only as a facilitator in the positive case and a potential stumbling block in the negative case. Clearly, just building roads is not enough: you need companies to manufacture/buy/operate trains and busses, and a population that can and wants to attribute some part of their (limited) disposable income by using it and paying for these services.
One final example from Maputo serves as a clarification: the road linking Maputo with the industrial hub of nearby Matola is in excellent condition, though people using it are subjected to a toll gate fee. However, alternatives are available - roads through the peri-urban areas in bad condition, with long traffic jams and frequent accidents. So people do have a choice, and clearly the faster, safer but more expensive option is more then valued by a large part of the society (mainly those who are in the position to allocate some of their income to paying the fee).
Coming up: ‘Infrastructure, part 2: Technology’
No comments:
Post a Comment