Previous Page  6 / 49 Next Page
Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 6 / 49 Next Page
Page Background

Proceedings of the 14

th

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. Selçuk KOÇ,

Director at the COMCEC Coordination Office briefly introduced the COMCEC and its activities as

well as underlined the importance of studying the theme of risk management in transport PPP

projects.

Mr. KOÇ emphasized that reliable transport infrastructure is a prerequisite of economic

development and a key pillar of international competitiveness. In this respect, risk management

in transport PPP projects is particularly important for increasing the quality of national

transport infrastructure and transport services.

Afterward, Her Excellency Shaheedha FATHIMATH, Deputy Minister, Ministry of

Communication, Science and Technology of the Republic of Maldives, was elected as the chair of

the meeting. H.E. FATHIMATH welcomed the participants and expressed her appreciations to

the participants for electing her as the chairperson

2.

Transport and Communications Outlook 2019

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 international trade and

transportation, such as the 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 the 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 mainliner

shipping services or lack the physical and operational capacity to serve large container ships. In

terms of average LSCI scores, the OIC-MENA region performed better than the OIC-Asia region