Guest Column by Dr. Lubinda Mufalo Sakanga
Transport economics has been applied in determining the economic viability of transport projects, forecasting demand and supply, resource capacity determination for projects and for determining the welfare impact of projects. I have decided to rephrase transport economics as TRANSNOMICS, a philosophy to anchor transport sector policy development for comprehensive contextualization of the desired enabling environment for operational excellence, quality service provision and competitive market practices and industry development.
Rail Transport Master Plans presents a good example to exemplify the TRANSNOMICS Philosophy. From an African context, our continent had the advantage or curse of inheriting infrastructure, plant and machinery from the colonial era including rail transport facilities. Most of this inheritance was purposed for facilitating the importation of plant and equipment for improving the extraction of Africa’s resources. Post-colonial era, the inherited infrastructure has continued to be used but today, for what is termed as international trade. One may wish to avoid the politics but facts lay bare for one to comprehend that for Africa’s rail industry: manufacturing plant and equipment hubs were not in the colonial plan; industrial research and development were not part of the plan, multi-sectoral linkages for cross-sector interdependencies were not in the colonial plan; and human capital resource development was narrowed to artisanal level to support, only, the operations of what was installed- spanner boys. In summary, the inherited rail industry, whilst still able to facilitate international trade, the industry structure and design is not self-sustainable for effective maintenance, growth and sustainable development of the sector to be an economic contributor of measure.
For the Africa We Want, the TRANSNOMICS philosophy postulates a shift in the transport sector development approach. Particularly for rail transport, TRANSNOMICS advocates for long-term commitment, resource allocation and economic regulation of the (rail) transport sector for manufacturing plant and equipment hubs development, encouraging research and development, fostering value from multi-sectoral linkages leveraging cross-sector interdependencies, for full rail project cycle human capacity development that will progressively innovate for the sustainable development of Africa’s industry. TRANSNOMICS posits nurture a competitive African rail industry to effectively facilitate the practical implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA) and foster commerce and trade at national, regional and continental levels.
No Quick Fix Solutions for Rail Sector Development: With exposure to American, Brazilian, Chinese, European, Malaysian and South Korean rail transport among other transport networks and systems, their rail industry capacity, technologies, energy demands, operator and technician skills, supporting sectors and infrastructure and continuous research and development ethic and applications provoke any African development enthusiast to mentality recalibrate for the Africa we Want. Our policy makers need to appreciate that to have and enjoy rail transport network systems, which we have seen and enjoyed in the developed world, there is No Quick Fix Solutions for Rail Sector Development.
We need cluster rail economic and spatial development planning and legislated commitment and budgeting. We need to lead the TRANSNOMICS philosophy ourselves and incentivise investors and cooperating partners into our purposive rail transport development plans. The interim interventions, mainly operational in focus, of concessions and open access are mere mitigation doses to maintain the inherited international trade systems. They do not foster rail sector development for sustainable national and regional economic growth. If we are to attain the Vision 2063, we need to recalibrate and apply TRANSNOMICS in effect for our rail sector development.
I hope and remain optimistic that the second ten-year implementation plan 2024-2033 dubbed ‘decade for accelerated implementation’ of Agenda 2063 will reflect the TRANSNOMICS philosophy. One hopes to see 10-20 to 30-year or more regional rail transport master plans as mandatory debate agenda in all member state parliaments with clear monitoring and evaluation frameworks serving as means of sector performance measurement and accountability. Thus, making rail master plans a consolidation of legislatively backed and committed national rail master plans ensuring harmonized and interdependent regional and corridor development plans under the auspices of institutional structures such as the Southern African Railways Association practically, to uphold the mantra “Together We Are Better”.
I encourage readers to look forward to more “TRANSNOMICS in Effect” articles, which will be published in this journal. These articles will highlight topics such as:
- Good and Bad Rail Concessions
- Fundamentals and Risks of Open Access Operations
- Rail Sector Procurement Strategy
- Complementary Service Sectors of the Rail Industry
- Railway Economic Regulation
- Rail Operations Management
- Rail Manufacturing for Operational and Trade Competitiveness
- Rail Service Quality
…and more.
Dr. Lubinda Mufalo Sakanga
Dr. Lubinda Mufalo Sakanga is a transport economist specialised in economic regulation, project and operations management. He has over 17 years of progressive transport sector experience gained at national and international levels. He worked in the public sector from 2006 to 2017 (Zambia) as a Senior Transport Economist position and progressively promoted to Assistant Director for Road and Rail.
From 2017 to date he has served the SADC region as Southern African Railways Association- Director Technical and Operations in charge of Programmes Coordination (Rail transport corridor development, policy, projects coordination and resource mobilization). Dr. Sakanga also provides transport, infrastructure, economic policy & operations management consultancy services.
His professional experience is complemented by astute academic qualifications: PhD degree in Operations Management under the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment of the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. His research focused on developing a regional railway corridor economic regulatory framework for sustainable economic development in SADC. He has a Master of Science degree in Project Management from the University of Salford, a Master of Arts Degree in Economic Policy Management and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from the University of Zambia. In addition, he holds professional certificates in Infrastructure and Public Private Partnership Financing, Road Management & Transport Technology and Business Accounting, amongst others.
