Mexico City: South Africa and Mexico may soon implement a road construction exchange programme.
This follows a meeting between Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele and Mexico’s Secretary (Minister) of Communications and Transport, Mr Dionisio Perez-Jacome Friscione, in Mexico City.
Minister Ndebele is currently leading a South African delegation to the XXIV World Road Congress in Mexico City from 26 to 30 September. Over 3 000 delegates from across the world, working in government, corporate and international associations, are in attendance.
Since the first World Road Congress held in Paris in 1908, permanent International Association of Roads Congresses (PIARC) organises every four years in a member country a World Road Congress to share techniques and experiences world-wide in the field of road infrastructures and road transport.
Roads are one of the key priorities of the Mexican government, and the Ministry of Communication and Transport is hiring 500 new engineers this year to build roads in Mexico. In the past five years, Mexico would have constructed 13 000 kilometres of rural roads and more than 19 000 kilometres of federal roads.
Minister Ndebele said, “We welcome Mexico’s offer to assist South Africa in the field of road construction and maintenance, and we will certainly be engaging further regarding implementation of an exchange programme between our two countries. Mexico has certainly made significant strides in the area of road building and we would like them to share their experience and expertise with us.
In South Africa, we need to ensure that all our roads, whether national, provincial or local, are constructed in accordance with appropriate quality standards and offer value for money. We are therefore working towards ensuring that at national level, we are able to monitor and maintain standards for the nation’s roads.”
“We would like to see relationships between Mexico and South Africa strengthened, and soon expect to see more flights between our two countries. Mexico is ready and open. Through our National Engineering Institute, we would be glad to share our experiences and offer our expertise to South Africa. Your experiences will also be useful and enlightening to us," Mr Friscione said.
Various funding options for the construction and maintenance of roads were also discussed at the meeting.
Minister Ndebele also held a meeting with Mr Federico Patino Marquez from BANOBRAS, the Mexican Development Bank, which acts as trustee of the National Infrastructure Fund and further discussed funding options for road construction.
Addressing the Minister’s session at the XXIV World Road Congress, Minister Ndebele re-iterated South Africa’s commitment to the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011 to 2020. “Approximately 1,3 million people die on roads across the world every year and that is a disaster. The death of more than 14 000 people annually on South Africa’s roads is a crisis.
To this end, South Africa is going all out to ensure safer roads through implementation of various programmes focusing on education, enforcement and engineering in line with the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety. We will win the war against road deaths, and all of us must put more effort into it,” Minister Ndebele said.
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