PRESS NOTICIA RELEASE DE IMPRENSA
Direccao Nacional de Estradas e Pontes, Avenida de Mozambique 1225, Maputo
Department of Transport Forum Building, Struben Street Pretoria 0001 012-309 3000 Fax: 012-328 5926
For Immediate Release
Date: 5 December 1996 Contact: Nazir Alli [South Africa] Carlos Fragoso [Mozambique] Phone: +27 (0)12-309 3305 +258 1 475 157 Fax: +27 (0)12-325 1001 +258 1 475 290
PREFERRED BIDDER SELECTED FOR MAPUTO CORRIDOR SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE
Mac Maharaj, The Minister of Transport of South Africa, and his colleague Roberto White, the Minister of Public Works and Housing of Mozambique, have jointly announced the preferred bidder in the run up to the award of the concession contract for the upgraded National Route 4 between the industrial heart of South Africa, Gauteng, and the Port of Maputo in Mozambique.
Whilst thanking Via Do Sol for their commitment to the project, the Ministers indicated that negotiations with a view to concluding the contract are to be entered into between their Departments and Trans- African Concessionaires (TRAC). A special Implementing Authority, established by the two Governments through a unique Protocol, will administer the contract on behalf of both governments over the thirty year period of its lifetime.
Tenders were advertised in early April 1996 and tender documents were released on 9 April 1996. A compulsory site inspection was held on 19 and 20 April 1996, which was attended by 38 members of the various tendering consortia. Tenderers were then invited to a meeting on 10 May 1996 to put any questions of clarification to the representatives of the Implementing Authority. Tenders closed at 11:00 on 28 June 1996 and the bids were opened and recorded in public, in the South African Roads Board Chamber (SARB), Forum Building, Struben Street, Pretoria, South Africa.
This process, from the date of issue of tender documents to this important day, has taken just less than eight months. Its completion within the tight timetable set for it shows that with co-operation and goodwill the people of this region can deliver world class development initiatives without trimming the original vision or sacrificing quality in the detailed specification of operational and social requirements.
Three bidders tendered for the project initially. The consortia consisted of South African and Mozambican companies, together with foreign concerns from outside the borders of the two countries.
The two bidders who remained after initial evaluations submitted their best and final offers on 25 November 1996. Both were congratulated by the Ministers on their commitment to black empowerment and the rebuilding of Mozambique's economic and social fabric.
The N4 project is the largest ever development undertaken in our regional roads sector, and will have many spin-off benefits for both countries. In the light of apartheid South Africa's historic role in the devastation of Mozambique's fragile transport infrastructure, it is particularly appropriate and satisfying that a joint road development project between the two countries should today form the cornerstone of a regional economic integration strategy based on mutual understanding, practical co- operation and respect for each other's cultural identities.
The foreign capital obtained by the consortia for the financing of the project will be a significant factor in stimulating the economies of our two countries, and, in Mozambique's case, beginning to release the positive economic and social multiplier- effects so long denied it by the politics of destabilisation .
This project has from the outset been conceived as an exercise in holistic development. The contract tender documents were specially formulated to elicit proposals from the bidders concerning job creation, economic empowerment and care for the environment, in addition to the core strategic aim of transporting goods and people more efficiently between the two countries.
In selecting the successful tenderer for the project, a multi-disciplinary team of experts from both the private and public sectors evaluated the bids received using engineering, financial, socio-economic, environmental, legal, tolling and cost criteria.
Both TRAC and Via Do Sol (who are now regarded as second runners) proposed impressive partnerships for the implementation of the project.
The approach adopted by both consortia augurs well for the future growth and development of our two countries. But equally as important, it represents a significant new departure in the promotion of co-operative ventures between small and large enterprises, re-affirming in practice the two governments' commitment to the principles of affirmative action and economic empowerment of previously disadvantaged sectors of the community.
In TRAC's Consortium are:
Bouygues SA. Basil Read Holdings Limited Stocks & Stocks Holdings Limited CETA - Obras de Engenharia, E.E. SOGEL - Sociedade Geral de Empreitadas, Lda HSBC Investment Bank Investec Bank Equator Bank (Mozambique) Msele Corporate and Merchant Bank Banco Comercial e de Investimenos (BCI) SNA Civil and Development Engineers Bradford Conning and Partners (BCP) Bergman-Ingerop Construction Planning Partnerships (CPP) Letaba Consultants Stanway Edwards & Associates (SEA) Parsons Brinckerhoff Conseng Consultec Constructores Chemane Engenharia Gest o e Consultores Fundacao para o Desenvolvimento da Comunidade Mozambique Gestores Prumo Teenica
The Via Do Sol Consortium consists of:
Grinaker Construction Group Five Limited Mota & Companhia, SA Keeve Steyn Inc. BKS Incorporated Profabril Vulindlela Brisa, Auto-Estradas De Portugal, S.A. Vula-Kusile Africa ASCH Painting Semenya Associates Goba Moahloli & Associates Inc Gapp Architects & Urban Designers ABSA Bank The Sumitomo Bank, Limited Ashurst Morris Crisp CFM Emose Petromoc
The project is also the first Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) project undertaken either in Mozambique or South Africa. BOT is a mechanism for implementing projects which relies upon the private sector to raise funds for public projects, to build and operate them at a profit, and then hand them back to the State at the end of the contract period. The two Governments have expressed their hope that its success will pave the way for many other similar projects.
It is anticipated that construction work on the project will commence in the first half of 1997. Initial construction will have a duration of approximately 3 years, after which the road will be periodically upgraded over the 30 year concession period to comply with pavement and level of service requirements.
The goal of broad economic empowerment will be realised through spending targeted at equity participation, the development of emergent entrepreneurs, skills transfer in the field of civil engineering, project management, literacy, community participation and the implementation of wider social development programmes. It is envisaged that over R500 million will be spent in this field and approximately 10 000 jobs will be created.
ENDS.