Angola’s Minister of State for Economic Coordination believes that the Lobito corridor could extend to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, highlighting the benefits for regional integration and global trade.
“The Lobito corridor could connect to Tanzania, to Dar es Salaam, and thus reach the other side of the world,” said José de Lima Massano during the conference “Radar África – Os Caminhos de Angola” (Radar Africa – The Paths of Angola), held today in Lisbon by Jornal de Negócios.
The minister pointed out that the rehabilitation of the railway line from Lobito to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and then on to Zambia, and continuing to the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, “will facilitate international trade, create another competitive channel for the movement of goods between countries and continents, and boost regional integration” in Southern Africa.
The Lobito corridor is an economic project that aims to restore the railway connection from the port of Lobito to the mining regions of DRC and Zambia, allowing minerals to be transported, but also helping to develop the interior regions of these countries.
“It is a corridor for economic development,” the minister emphasized, adding that the current international context of war in the Middle East shows the importance of diversifying international trade routes and logistics chains.
Among the examples of economic development that the rehabilitation of the railway line provides, José de Lima Massano pointed to logistics platforms, choosing one that already has financial support from the Netherlands for the development of avocado production.
The minister’s statements come less than a month after Entreprise Générale du Cobalt (EGC) and Trafigura made their first delivery of copper and cobalt to international markets via the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR), “a decisive step” in the development of the supply chain.
Trafigura, in a statement released today, said the operation was a “decisive step” in the development of a “faster, more efficient, and more transparent” supply chain for minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The operation underlines the strategic importance of the Lobito Corridor in transporting mineral resources from the DRC to customers around the world, the statement said, noting that LAR stretches for about 1,300 kilometers, connecting the deep-water port of Lobito (Angola) to the border with the DRC in Luau.
The infrastructure, which also includes an additional 450-kilometer connection to Kolwezi, the center of the Congolese Copper Belt, reduces transport time by about seven days compared to other alternatives.
Source: Ver Angola
