From 15 to 16 September 2020, the Ministry of Commerce, Transport, Industry and Tourism organized a workshop for the exchange of all stakeholders on the national strategy for planning and managing the transport sector and the 2018-2027 action plan.

The Minister in charge of Transport Immaculate Ndabaneze who opened the work of this workshop said that this strategy is based on 7 strategic directions, namely inter-urban road transport, rural transport, urban transport, rail transport, rail transport, lake transport, lake transport, transport lake, transport multimodal and logistics, multimodal transport and logistics, air transport, road safety and institutional and legal aspects.

The Minister in charge of Transport emphasized on this occasion that the transport management strategy is a legal framework to support the economic and commercial growth of Burundi at the international and sub-regional levels, in line with the objectives set by the National Development Plan (PND) which extends over the period 2018-2027.

The representative of the executive secretariat of the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (TTCC), Melchior Barantandikiye, for his part, believes that the implementation of this plan will contribute to the reduction of transport costs, to access to new markets for the supply and distribution of national production, to the improvement of the trade balance and to the control of the logistics chain both for import and export.

According to the coordinator of the Road Transport Unit, Edouard Nyandwi, some achievements are in progress, in particular the rehabilitation of the urban roads of the City of Bujumbura and the rehabilitation of the Rumonge-Nyanza-Lac and Rumonge-Gitaza roads. Edouard Nyandwi also specified that the two sections have already received funding.

“For the modernization and development of urban transport, this strategy includes the construction of interchanges, bus stops, bus stations and traffic lights”, specified the Coordinator.

And Edouard Nyandwi added that this strategy will be financed progressively by the State budget, technical and financial partners and other financing methods. The overall cost is estimated at 4.888 billion US dollars, he said.

During this workshop, several presentations were made in relation to the transport sector.

After exchanges and debates, the participants made recommendations to improve this strategy. In particular, they recommended setting up a team to adapt and update the strategy to the new structure of the Government in order to reprogram it to the Council of Ministers and review the 2018-2027 deadlines.

They also recommended that the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (AF-TTCC) support the Government of Burundi in mobilizing funding to implement this strategy.

The participants also recommended that the AF-TTCC support the government in finalizing this strategy.