Proceedings of the 13th Meeting of the
Transport and Communications Working Group
2
1. Opening Remarks
The Meeting started with a recitation from the Holy Quran. At the outset, Mr. Burak KARAGÖL,
Director at the COMCEC Coordination Office, briefly introduced the COMCEC and its activities as
well as underlined the importance of studying the theme of planning of national transport
infrastructure.
Mr. KARAGÖL emphasized that reliable transport infrastructure is a prerequisite of economic
development and a key pillar of international competitiveness. In this respect, transport project
appraisals are particularly important for increasing the quality of national transport
infrastructure and transport services.
Afterward, Mr. Katushabe WINSTONE, Commissioner Transport Regulation, and Safety,
Ministry of Works and Transport of Uganda, was elected as the chair of the meeting. Mr.
WINSTONE welcomed the participants and expressed his appreciations to the participants for
electing him as the chairperson.
2. Transport and Communications Outlook 2018
Dr. İ. Çağrı ÖZCAN, Expert at the COMCEC Coordination Office, delivered a presentation on the
main findings of the COMCEC Transport and Communications Outlook 2018. At the outset, Mr.
ÖZCAN underscored the importance of the transport and communications sector as one of the
six cooperation areas specified by the COMCEC Strategy. This followed by emphasizing the
relationship between transport, logistics, and trade and how they affect each other.
Dr. ÖZCAN continued with providing figures with regard to the international trade and
transportation, such as Logistics Performance Index (LPI), Liner Shipping Connectivity Index
(LSCI), the burden of customs procedures, and quality of transport infrastructure. He
emphasized that, with respect to the quality of transport infrastructure, both OIC overall and
OIC-Sub-Saharan Africa averages fall below world averages in each measure. OIC-MENA
performs better than world average except for the quality of railroad infrastructure. On the
other hand, OIC-Asia underperforms than world averages in each measure except the quality of
railroad infrastructure.
While explaining the LSCI scores Dr. ÖZCAN mentioned that Malaysia, UAE, Morocco, and Egypt
are well connected to the global shipping network whereas Albania, Brunei, Guinea Bissau, and
Guyana are the least connected. The best-performing countries have large transshipment ports
(e.g. Malaysia, Morocco, and Egypt) and gateway ports (e.g. Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey).
On the other hand, the least performing countries are either not located on the main liner