The 22nd PIARC World Road Congress held in Durban last week has been billed as a success following Transport Minister Dullah Omar’s meetings with various countries to discuss transport strategies.
The 22nd PIARC World Road Congress held in Durban last week has been billed as a success following Transport Minister Dullah Omar’s meetings with various countries to discuss transport strategies.
By holding discussions with transport officials from the other nations represented at the World Road Congress, the government hoped to exchange road safety strategies and implement intelligent transport systems that would decrease the death toll in South Africa, said Omar.
The meetings were two of many that the Transport Minister had with ministers and delegates of countries attending the PIARC World Road Congress, to share experiences and to find ways in which countries can co-operate with each other to address transport challenges.
In a bi-lateral meeting between Omar and his UK counterpart, it was agreed that the two countries would work together to address our country’s high road fatality. UK Transport Minister David Jamieson accepted South Africa’s request for assistance on road traffic management expertise in order to address the problem.
Omar said a delegation from the Department of Transport would visit UK soon to exchange views with road safety experts and to inspect key road safety projects.
“We are happy to work with the people of South Africa in road traffic management solutions and also to assist in skills transfer and sharing of experiences,” Mr Jamieson said.
Omar responded by saying that “we are very excited about this co-operation. We will send a team to learn and to draw some lessons on how best to manage our traffic. Critical will be the issue of an intelligent transport system – we would like to use technology more, to manage and co-ordinate our traffic on a daily basis.”
Both ministers have agreed that there is a need for the two countries to work together in exploring the latest methods and technical skills in an effort to decrease the country’s high road fatality rate.
In a meeting held with Algeria’s Transport Minister, it was decided that a transport delegation would be sent to the country to address bilateral issues. The minister also addressed the Canadian delegation to discuss business opportunities and co-operation between the two countries.
Omar also met African Ministers to explore regional co-operation and to share challenges and successes with colleagues from the continent. He held discussions with 20 visiting African ministers and it was agreed that Africa’s road infrastructure issues would be taken up in the various structures of Nepad, SADC and the African Union.
One of the goals of Nepad was to address issues of transport on the continent and it was decided at the African Ministers’ session that countries would need to follow up the integration of respective networks with the “harmonisation of traffic law enforcement”.