Kigali 18^th October,2021- Minister of Infrastructure Honorable Claver Gatete virtually attended the Second United Nations Global Sustainable Transport Conference that was held in Beijing China from 14-16 October,2021.

The conference was organized as an opportunity to focus attention on the opportunities, challenges and solutions towards achieving sustainable transport worldwide. This follows up on the first Global Sustainable Transport Conference, held in 2016 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Bringing together Heads of State and various transport stakeholders globally, the conference is expected to indicate a way forward for sustainable transport to help achieve the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change in the Decade of Action.

Speaking at the conference, Minister Gatete emphasized that transport plays a crucial role as an enabler for achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 1 on ending poverty. Africa’s structural transformation and inclusive green growth, which are pre-requisites for reaching most of the SDGs, are hampered by a range of natural and man-made constraints. This creates serious obstacles to deeper regional integration of African countries whereby poor infrastructure continues to hinder Africa’s competitiveness. Minister added.

Despite the efforts made by African countries in infrastructure development including transport, there is a need for more investment where African Development Bank estimates 130 -170 Bn USD required investment per year. Being aware of the above challenge, Africa as a continent has put in place a Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). This program provides a common framework for African stakeholders to build the infrastructure necessary for more integrated transport, energy, ICT and transboundary water networks to boost trade and jobs creation.

In the same perspective, Rwanda’s development pathway to becoming an upper-middle-income economy by 2035 and high-income country by 2050 hinges on economic growth linked to sustainable transport systems as a land-locked country. To achieve these targets, Rwanda is making a lot of efforts to reduce freight and logistics costs while developing an integrated transport system that links with the region. This includes road networks that connect to all borders with the neighboring countries, inland water transport, state-of-the-art airport and initiated the regional railway network project.

The 2^nd UN Global Sustainable Transport conference comes at the right time, when countries need to scale-up investment in efficient, seamless, green, inclusive and cost-effective transport system that will help in the achievement of sustainable development goals by 2030.

Minister Gatete retaliates that Rwanda is ready to work with stakeholders to realize this global objective.