Speech of Ambassador Mariani on the occasion of the signature of the Financing Agreement for the "Civil Aviation Sector Support Programme II"

H.E. ALESSANDRO MARIANI

AMBASSADOR OF THE EUROPEAN UNION TO ZAMBIA AND COMESA

Speech on the occasion of the signature of the Financing Agreement for the "Civil Aviation Sector Support Programme II",

 22 November 2016, Lusaka

Honourable Minister of Finance, Felix Mutati

Honourable Minister of Transport and Communication,  Brian Mushimba

Secretary to the Treasury, Fredson Yamba

Director General of Civil Aviation Authority, Gabriel Lesa

Managing Director of Zambia Airports Corporation Ltd, Robinson Misitala

Colleagues Ambassadors of Member States of the European Union,

Government Officials,

Representatives of the Media,

Dear Friends,

• It is a privilege and an honour to see you all present at this signing ceremony, jointly organised by the Ministry of Finance and the Delegation of the European Union to Zambia and COMESA.

• As you know, development of the Aviation sector in Zambia continues to play a critical role for the country to enhance its connectivity within Zambia, which is a vast country, with the region and the wider world at large.

• A safe and reliable aviation network is essential to support many key economic sectors – let me mention the tourism sector, where Zambia has huge opportunities given its natural beauties and wealth and where efforts are underway to promote industry growth through private sector development and the development of sustainable wildlife management policies

• Available statistics and trends suggest that we should expect the aviation sector in Zambia to continue to grow and to contribute towards inclusive economic growth over the coming years. We will almost certainly see the reinforcement of existing air carriers and the emergence of new air carriers in the future.
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• Furthermore, with the rise of global threats, in particular targeting civil aviation, the international aviation community needs to strengthen measures for adequate prevention and response. 

  It is therefore of utmost importance that Zambian authorities are adequately organized and capacitated in order to comply fully with requirements and obligations they should adhere to. That is why we believe that our continued  support to and cooperation with key institutions and players from the aviation sector is desirable and justified.

• The European Union assistance to the aviation sector in Zambia has already a quite considerable track record. In recent years, the European Union supported the development of airport infrastructure here in Lusaka at Kenneth Kaunda International airport and also at the Harry Mwanza Nkumbula International airport in Livingstone. This was done through two rehabilitation projects financed under the 8th and 9th European Development Funds respectively.

• More recently, improved governance of the aviation sector has been addressed under the 10th European Development Fund.  This programme assisted Zambia in achieving conformity with the international safety standards required by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and the European Union.

• In June of this year we all welcomed the fact that Zambia was removed from the European Union’s Air Safety list. There is no doubt that EU assistance was instrumental in achieving this major milestone. 

• This, in practical terms, has some immediate positive effects: Domestic and international travellers have much more confidence in using the air flights to move from one place to another in Zambia with an obvious positive impact on the economy of the country, given also its dimensions. In addition, the European and other international travellers can now purchase their ticket to any airport in Zambia directly from Europe while before they could purchase their ticket to Lusaka only and had eventually to buy a separate ticket for the domestic leg of their travel. Moreover, Zambian registered air carriers can from now onwards operate in European skies. And as a result of this long awaited achievement, Zambian and European Union citizens and economies are brought closer together.

• We were also gratified by the fact that European Union supported the preparation of the Aviation Bill which became law earlier this year, setting the sector on a much firmer development path for the future. I look forward to hearing about similar positive results coming out of the follow up support programme that we are launching today.

  With this programme, we intend to help address remaining bottlenecks in the current institutional and regulatory framework so as to ensure full conformity to operational requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The programme targets new, concrete results in terms of strengthened air safety and security oversight systems, air traffic management services brought up to international standards and key sector institutions better prepared and equipped to perform their statutory functions as foreseen by the new Aviation Act.

• To that end, we will provide assistance to the Ministry of Transport and Communication, the Civil Aviation Authority, Zambia Airports Corporation, educational establishments and other sector stakeholders, including private sector service providers. Various forms of support are envisaged under this programme, which in large part will be implemented through and in partnership with a specialized EU institution – the European Aviation Safety Agency based in Koeln, Germany.  Ladies and gentlemen we are going to put at the disposal of Zambia the finest expertise in the European Union in the area of aviation safety.

• I believe that this assistance programme is very timely and responds to the current and prospective needs of the sector very well. I also call on everyone involved in the implementation of this new programme - be they public or private sector participants - to endeavour to make it a success, as everyone's continued commitment will be essential to achieve our common goals

• On behalf of the European Union, I thank you for your presence today and wish you all success with the implementation of the programme.

Thank you very much for your attention.  Zikomo Kwambiri