Regulatory Impact Assessment on Aspects of Namibia’s Road Transport Legislation

With the signing of the Protocol on Trade in 2000, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Member States made the initial step towards deeper economic integration as a vehicle for enhancing growth and competitiveness throughout the region.

One aspect of this deeper regional integration is the liberalization of trade in services. A necessary adjunct to stimulating increased services trade is the existence of strong and effective regulatory frameworks which underpin the efficient operation of service industries. As such, the Southern Africa Trade Hub (SATH) is supporting the design and use of Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs) to better understand and evaluate the costs and benefits of changes to service sector regulatory frameworks.

SATH, in conjunction with the Ministry of Works and Transport (MWT) in Namibia, has embarked on a pilot RIA on aspects of Namibia's Road Transport legislation. The project comprises two activities:

• Training on transport economics and the performance of RIAs; and
• An RIA on aspects of Namibia's transport legislation.

As a first step, a SATH Team (SATH's Trade in Services Advisor, a RIA Specialist and a Transport Economist) partnered with officials of the Department of Transport of MWT to undertake consultations in Windhoek with key stakeholders in April 2012. This mission contributed to the first stage of the RIA, which involved the identification of issues which would be suitable for the application of an RIA.

This report highlights the three main issues which satisfy the criteria of being suitable for an RIA; complement Namibia's strategic interest of enhancing its road transport regime to support further economic development; and are in tandem with SATH's focus on enhancing and increasing cross-border trade within the SADC region.

These are the third country rule, cross-border permits and rules that affect the trans-shipment of noncontainerized cargo.