Infrastructure

Infrastructure quality has a significant effect on a country’s economy, for a national economy cannot flourish without a strong infrastructure and international trade is also more difficult. Goods, raw materials and information must be able to flow quickly and easily to ensure that they arrive where they are needed in time. Economically active people must also be able to get where they need to be, the workplace, hospitals, schools and public authorities. Efficient transport and traffic systems, reliable water supply and waste water disposal along with rubbish disposal are essential prerequisites for economic and social development in both industrialised and in developing and transition countries. When the gross national product of a country goes up by just one percent, traffic volume increases by two percent. If this growth is not properly managed, economic development will stagnate or even regress.

This is why investment in sustainable and efficient infrastructures is essential to creating a framework to sustain economic development. In its partner countries Inwent designs programmes to create sustainable lasting concepts for transport and logistics along with the necessary infrastructure. Our "Sustainable Logistic Concepts for Economic Development in the SADC Regions" programme is just one example. At the beginning of the 1990s, the 14 Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries agreed to strengthen their regional cooperation and develop a common trade policy with the objective of creating a free trade zone to strengthen the economic growth of the entire region. The SADC countries can only be successful though if they can increase the efficiency of the transport and logistics sectors. Inwent provides employees from logistics companies and institutions with the qualifications and technical know-how they need. Both short seminars in the region and longer training programmes in Germany familiarise participants with logistic concepts in regional and international commercial traffic. They get to know the formal, technical and organisational demands placed on national and regional transport economy and develop the skills to develop efficient concepts for cross-border traffic in goods, and the methods to implement these in their home countries.

In another Inwent programme aimed at supporting infrastructure development in our partner countries, participants work on sustainable development of the transport and traffic sectors in Central and Western China. China needs qualified experts if it is to be able to shape its rapidly growing traffic to be both efficient and environmentally friendly. Inwent has been training employees from the government and transport sectors in regional workshops and seminars for 25 years now. In Germany participants familiarize themselves with ecological logistics concepts and learn about trade and investment development strategies.

D+C online: Infrastructure of peace