The Committee held a two-day strategic planning session with the Department and its entities on 16 and 17 April 2013. The Department has the responsibility to address the imbalance of poverty, inequality and unemployment through the provision of transport infrastructure and transport services. The main focus of the strategic planning workshop was to assess how the programmes of the Department and its entities relate to the triple challenges taking into account that transport is the heartbeat of economic development and the resources that government has invested for transport infrastructure development.