REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS AND SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES – SOME CURRENT PERSPECTIVES ON POTENTIALS AND PROGRESS GRM de Beer 1. Introduction This paper has been prepared for the South African Transport Conference. The purpose of the paper is to provide a brief overview of development prospects, projects and progress in respect of selected regional development corridors in southern Africa1. The various development corridor initiatives need to be viewed against the backdrop of a number of socio-economic imperatives that are facing the SADC member states2. They include the following: • The need to increase the rate of economic growth in the region. • The need to develop the regional economy in a manner that would render it far more diversified, stronger, and internationally competitive. • The need to significantly speed up the rate of employment creation, both formal and informal. Related to this is the need to create jobs that are sustainable in the long term. • The need to create viable business opportunities for small and medium scale entrepreneurs (SMEs). (Particularly in context of the formal sectors increasing inability to generate permanent jobs.) • The need to identify policies and strategies, and support projects and programmes, which will provide a sustainable basis for empowering local communities. • The need to derive sustainable strategies and programmes to facilitate the rehabilitation and expansion of the region’s infrastructure networks and facilities, and also to improve on the quality and reliability of the logistical services provided in terms of such infrastructure and facilities. • The need to mobilise/secure far greater levels of private sector investment and lending in support of the broader socio-economic development process. 1 The focus of this paper has, in context of this particular conference, been placed on the regional development corridors/SDIs that are underpinned to a significant degree by transportation development. 2 The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an economic grouping of fourteen countries, namely, Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The primary objective of the SADC alliance is to promote economic growth and development, to alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the peoples of Southern Africa and support for the socially disadvantaged through regional integration. 20th South African Transport Conference South Africa, 16 – 20 July 2001 ‘Meeting the Transport Challenges in Southern Africa’ Organised by: Conference Planners Conference Papers Produced by: Document Transformation Technologies • The need to develop an integrated and coherent framework and strategy within which private and public sector, as well as donor support can be successfully mobilised to support economic reform and socio-economic development. • The need to develop efficient and effective planning and decision-making processes in support of macro-economic growth and socio-economic development at national and regional level. It is within the context of the above mentioned issues (the list is by no means comprehensive), that the rehabilitation of the regional transport corridors, and the further development of these transport corridors into diverse multi-sectoral development corridors based on the principles and strategies applied in Spatial Development Initiatives (SDI) programme has become a very high strategic development priority. The successful implementation of the Maputo Development Corridor had the effect of boosting support within SADC for the concept of multi-sectoral economic development corridors and for the particular planning and investor mobilisation approach embodied in the SDIs. This paper, takes a brief look at the background issues and trends that underpin the development corridor initiatives in Southern Africa, and the key principles and strategies that are fundamental to the SDI approach. The paper also provides a brief overview of selected regional development corridors where the transportation infrastructure networks are a key component. In this overview the emphasis is placed on highlighting some of the main economic and infrastructure development projects that are currently being considered as the ‘anchor projects’, as well as commenting on the degree of progress being achieved. In the final part of the paper, an assessment is made of some of the key observations and issues arising from the various development corridor initiatives, and where appropriate certain proposals in support of these initiatives are put forward. 2. SADC economic priorities The economic vision of SADC is to transform the fourteen countries of Southern Africa from operating as individual fragmented markets into a single integrated vibrant and globally competitive market characterised by free movement of goods, services, capital and labour. To translate this vision into reality, the SADC countries have negotiated, amongst other things, a series of “Protocols” or legally binding regional agreements that define the framework and mechanisms for achieving such integration3. The SADC Member States support the principle and strategy of closer economic cooperation as a means of promoting economic development within the context of the global economy. In this regard there are a number of perceived socio-economic development opportunities and benefits. Amongst the main key economic development opportunities that would arise from regional integration are the following: Firstly, the diversification of the regions industrial base based 3 Two of the key Protocols are the Protocol on Trade and the Protocol on Transport, Communications and Meteorology (Protocol on TCM). In terms of the latter protocol, the vision for infrastructure development in Southern Africa is to create a seamless, integrated, efficient, cost-effective and responsive transport and communications system that is characterised by partnership between the public and private sectors and that acts as a catalyst for (as well as accelerates) the goal of socio- economic growth and integration for the region. on each countries inherent development potential and related comparative advantages4. Secondly, regional industrial specialisation, and particularly specialised regional processing activities (that can take place as a result of the larger regional market)5. Thirdly, a regional approach to the mobilisation of FDI. Foreign direct investment is more likely to be attracted to the region within the context of larger markets, and an economic policy and strategy framework that is regionally integrated and collaborative. Fourthly, the sharing of the regions training and capacity building skills for the wider benefit of the southern African members. The key economic benefits that are to be derived for the SADC Member States from a regionally cooperative and integrated approach are seen to include enhanced scale economies; the promotion of competition and innovation at a regional level; providing a stimulus to investment and productivity; the institutionalisation of conflict management; and enhanced bargaining in international fora. Further benefits include a reduced dependence on primary product exports; as well as scale gains from implementation of large regional projects; reduced economic disparities and inequities among Southern African countries; and improved economic management and performance through regional cooperation. 3. From regional transport corridors to regional development corridors If one looks back at the original set of objectives of the Maputo Development Corridor initiative it is evident that from the outset the strategists promoting the initiative were not solely concerned with the re-establishment of the historical transport corridor. Whilst the initial infrastructure anchor projects were strategically vital in their own right, they had further strategic importance because of their ability to support the broader socio-economic development process. One of the key achievements of initiatives like the Maputo Development Corridor was the impact it achieved in assisting/facilitating the development of new, or expansion of existing economic opportunities, and as such supporting the establishment of a development corridor. 4. The SDI approach – key principles and strategies. There are a number of key principles that underpin the SDI approach, and it is the application of these principles that appears to have been largely responsible for the level of success achieved with the programme. Co-operation, collaboration and integration in terms of economic policy and strategy. Prior to the political changes in South Africa, the rest of the region had not been able to design and implement collaborative and integrated economic policies and strategies that included South Africa. On the contrary, South Africa’s ‘pariah’ status had the effect of forcing the South African economy to be managed as a closed economy (i.e. import 4 The lack of diversified industrial development in the southern African countries has been a key impediment to enhanced regional trade. Opportunities for the development of value added production is particularly important. Such processed products fetch higher prices in the markets, and are less vulnerable to the price instabilities that effect primary commodities. The potential for regional integration will remain limited as long as economies are dependent on a limited