Photo by: Duane Daws
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters and US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx on Monday inked a deal that would see collaboration and cooperation on transport matters between the two countries continue well into the future.
A new memorandum of cooperation (MoC), signed at Park Station, in Johannesburg, would open cooperation between the countries and their respective companies in land, air and sea infrastructure development.
Speaking at the signing, Foxx said the MoC was aimed at finding ways to bring more women into the fold through the promotion of transport careers for women, promoting knowledge and experience sharing, ensuring skills development and capacity building and allowing the US to increase its knowledge of South Africa, while South Africa absorbed the lessons of the US in nation building and growth.
Peters added that the MoC would narrow focus on maritime training to ensure South Africa economically leveraged its more than 3 000 km of coastline, allow the development of a closer working relationship between aviation training facilities and unlock potential solutions for driver training.
This emerged a year after Peters engaged Foxx in the US to strengthen relations and four years after the initial MoC signed by then-Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele and then-US Assistant Secretary of Transportation Susan Kurlan.
In September 2011, South Africa and the US cemented an initial MoC to serve as a framework for the structured implementation of sector-specific initiatives, technology transfer, transport services, search and rescue and the exchange of expertise and joint ventures between companies, besides others.
The agreement extended to cooperation and collaboration across rail; civil aviation; maritime transport; land transport infrastructure; land transport safety; transport services; road traffic; public passenger transport; integrated transport master planning; joint ventures; safety, security and sustainable development; the exchange of technical expertise and technology transfer; training and capacity building; and infrastructure funding and modelling.