By Justina
Paaga, GNA
Takoradi June 21, GNA – Professor George
Gyan-Baffour, Minister for Planning has entreated stakeholders in the transport
sector to explore workable but sustainable approaches to plan, finance and
maintain the transport infrastructure whilst balancing issues of affordability
to the citizens.
He pointed out that the traditional cycle of
borrowing for major investment projects such as roads and raising funds from
traditional sources for maintenance and operation would not enable Ghana to reach
the Ghana beyond aid dream envisaged by the President.
Prof Gyan-Baffour said this during the 3rd
Transport Sector Review Conference in Takoradi, on the theme “Sustainability of
Ghana’s Transport Sector –Exploring Innovative Solutions”.
The three-day conference jointly organised by the Ministries
of Transport, Aviation, Railways Development
and Roads and Highways, gathered experts, practitioners and development
partners to review the performance of the Transport sector in the past years,
discuss future plans , identify challenges and chart the way forward.
Prof. Gyan-Baffour described the theme of the
conference as apt as it brought their attention to the need for thinking
outside the box in the planning and operationalisation of the nation’s transport
systems.
He noted that transportation sustainability
was measured by effectiveness of transport systems and efficiency as well as
the environmental climate impact system.
The Planning Minister in this regard stressed
the need to explore more innovative ways of addressing the challenges in the
transport systems, which had become critical in light of the Ghana beyond aid
agenda.
“There is the need for all stakeholders, the
government, development partners, technocrats , the academia, civil society,
transport operators and users as well as
researchers to begin a thorough
evaluation of the existing transport system policies for the alignment with
concepts of financial, social and environmental sustainability to unearth
a new paradigm for the future of our transport system”.
He said the safety and security of the
transport system needed a complete overhaul to bring it to the state that
foster confidence to investors, operators and users of the various transport
modes.
Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, Minister for Transport
said the conference was critical for them as transport practitioners and
stakeholders not only to ensure the achievement of their objectives but also as
a means to critically assess and address the challenges confronted them as a
sector.
According to him, there was the need for
adequate institutional and regulatory framework as well as innovative measures
to underpin the necessary development.
He said one key challenge facing the transport
sector was traffic congestion in the cities, noting that the provisions of
urban transport infrastructure and service had over the years been a major
challenge.
He announced that an urban transport forum
with support from the sustainable African Transport Policy Programme would soon
be held in Ghana to explore ideas and solutions to dealing with the current
transport challenges.
Mr Asiamah
said the Ministry had completed all its
projects under the transport
sector project within the time
frame of the project and added that the Ministry was ready to start the implementation of the transport sector improvement project that was awaiting
Parliamentary approval of the credit facility.
He
stated that the Eastern corridor Multimodal transport, with emphasis on the
development of the Volta Lake transport system as well as the rail component of
the multimodal project had taken off in earnest.
For her Part, the Minister of Aviation, Mrs
Cecilia Abena Dapaah described the transport industry as broad and complex, yet
a vibrant one which called for collaboration among the various model sectors,
ministries, departments and agencies.
She said the Aviation sector had made progress
to promote the sector through the modernisation of airport infrastructure,
establishing institutional and policy frameworks to enhance safety and security
of air services, adding that currently 37 International airlines were operating
in the country with new entrants coming on board soon.
Mr Kwasi Amoako-Atta Minister of Roads and
Highways, stressed the need for stakeholder in the road sector to be innovative
to develop an integrated and robust transport system which could stand the test
of time.
He also stressed the need for them to consider
the uncertainties and the issues of the avoidable challenges of climate change,
which was truly important in ensuring sustainability.
The Minister of Railways Development, Mr Joe
Ghartey pointed out that the only way to solve the numerous challenges
confronting the transport sector was to resource the rail sector to make it
more vibrant and efficient.
He noted that the expansion of the country’s
ports and road network would be meaningless if the rail sector was ignored,
stressing that the country made a big mistake in the past to have abandoned the
rail sector which he described as a tool for economic development.
GNA