The Federal Ministry of Transportation in collaboration with the Union of African Shippers’ Council (UASC) would organize a two-day sub-regional interactive forum on infrastructure development and maintenance on October 6th and 7th, 2016.
The Forum which would be declared open by the Honourable Minister for Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, CON, would hold at Sheraton Abuja Hotel, Abuja.
The two-day programme with the theme: Transport Infrastructure Development and Maintenance: Funding Options and Trade Policies, is being organized with a view to ensuring trade facilitation and advocacy for development and maintenance that would go a long way in promoting efficiency, competitiveness and cost reduction in the delivery of goods and services in the West and Central African Sub-Region.
The objectives of the Forum include to examining better access to transportation infrastructure and networks to improve connectivity, promote integration of markets and enhance regional trade for sustainable economic growth of the West and Central African Sub-region.
The event would also sensitize authorities and policy makers on other options for financing public and private projects, indentify challenges to Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and remove unnecessary bureaucratic practices and procedures.
One of the highlights of the Forum would be an extraordinary session of the UASC Steering Committee and the Joint Standing Committee Meeting.
Nigeria has been the Chairman of the Standing Committee no. 1 (Trade and Transport) of the UASC for more than 10 years and the Committee is charged with the responsibility to handle matters relating to freight rates, port charges and other conditions of carriage of goods.
