Improving Transnational Transport Corridors
In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases
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promotes national and regional trade and integration, and provides opportunities for private
sector investments along the Corridor
NCTTCA's major target objectives are to promote use of the NTTC as the most effective
transport network for surface transport of goods between the member countries and the sea
and ensure that member states (a) grant each other the right of transit in order to facilitate
movement of goods through their respective territories and (b) provide all possible facilities
for traffic in transit between their territories. Other priorities include:
Expedite movement of traffic and avoid unnecessary delays in the movement of goods
in transit.
Minimize incidence of custom fraud and avoidance.
Simplify and harmonize documentation and procedures relevant to the movement of
goods in transit.
Improve transport infrastructure and facilities.
Adopt Internet Communications Technology (ICT) technologies to enhance exchange
of information and to monitor movement of cargo along the corridor.
All the above are classical requirements for the elaboration and formation of transport
corridors.
Transport Strategies and Planning
In reviewing the national transport strategies and plans of each country, the most important
aspect to determine is the extent to which international transport and corridor development
features in them. Uganda prepared its National Transport Master Plan for 2008 to 2023 and
being a landlocked country that has always been totally dependent on Mombasa Port, its plan
should relate to the transport corridor. Sure enough, objective iii) of the plan is “To serve also
as a key input to regional transport planning at East African Community, COMESA and African
Union levels”. One of the draft policy statements is also of relevance, ‘To promote modal
integration, including container transshipment facilities at interchange points between all
modes’. To implement these, a near term investment project was to upgrade the Uganda
section of international road corridor and construct transshipment points. It can be concluded
that National Planning has considered the Northern Corridor to be very important.
For Kenya, one would hope to see that the policy accepts its role as a transit country and it
certainly does do this. In the Strategic Transport Master Plan for Rwanda prepared in 2012
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there was no reference to the Northern Corridor, only an oblique one to pay attention to the
future needs of regional integration. However, in the Economic Development & Poverty
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Strategic Transport Master Plan for Rwanda Aurecon, 2012.