Better air connections will help African business – Mozambique’s Prime Minister

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Better air connections will help African business – Mozambique’s Prime Minister

8:27 CAT | 21 Oct 2016

Noticias / Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário speaking at the opening of the 25th General Assembly of the Airports Council International (ACI) in Maputo.

Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario on Thursday argued that better air connections between African countries will help improve the business environment on the continent.

He was speaking at the opening of the 25th General Assembly of the Airports Council International (ACI). About 300 delegates from across the globe are participating in the three day meeting in Maputo.

“Improving air connections is an imperative”, said Rosario, “since once those connections are guaranteed, they will contribute to improving the business environment, encouraging investment, stimulating innovation and raising the efficiency of business management”.

Air transport, he continued, is taking on growing importance in the world economy. “It facilitates the export of goods, particularly agricultural goods, ensuring that fresh products reach distant markets with the required quality”, he said. “It allows the rapid movement and reasonable prices of specialist components in the chains of production”.

One of the main challenges faced by African countries, the Prime Minister said, concerns investment in airport facilities, which is extremely expensive.

Airports should bank on modernization, he added, to improve the quality of the services they provide, and should work to establish public-private partnerships.

But he stressed that the financial sustainability of airport companies should be one of the top priorities. That involved “investing continually in human resources, adopting innovative models of management and creating opportunities for greater participation by the private sector”.

“Air connectivity, measured by the frequency of flights, reliability, and the diversity of destinations, is strongly associated with important economic variables, such as labour productivity and the competitiveness of the tourism sector”, he said.

A chronic problem in Africa is the lack of routes between African countries. Frequently, the quickest way of flying from one African country to another is via Europe.

According to its website, the ACI “is the only global trade representative of the world’s airports. Established in 1991, ACI represents airport’s interests with Governments and international organizations such as ICAO, develops standards, policies and recommended practices for airports, and provides information and training opportunities to raise standards around the world”.

Source: AIM