Improving Transnational Transport Corridors

In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases

Executive Summary

This study investigates the latest trends related to transnational transport corridors in the OIC

geography, identifies the common challenges these corridors are facing and proposes

recommendations for enhancing effective and efficient transnational transport corridors. The

ultimate aim of the study is to raise awareness of transnational transport corridors among the

OIC Member States as well as to trigger a serious debate around the issues identified and how

to address them.

Within the OIC geography, there are more than 100 transport routes dispersed over Arab, Asia,

and Africa regions. It should be noted that not all of these transport routes are transport

corridors. Transport corridors should meet the criteria of a multi modal transport corridor

that facilitates trade. Transport corridors are denoted as such because, among others, (1) they

are subject to an international treaty between countries that call it such, (2) there are common

technical and operations standards, (3) the traffic is mostly international, and (4) the

operating standards are usually higher than “ordinary” transport routes.

The literature review and analyses conducted for this study were based on a framework of

seven subject areas, in order to better understand the lessons learned from the best practices,

and at the same time to identify the main challenges faced by the transport corridors outside

the OIC geography. The seven areas of the framework, which were used as a basis for the

entire report, are: (1) political and institutional factors, (2) economic factors, (3) trade

facilitation, (4) social factors, (5) safety, security and legal liability, (6) technical and

operational factors, and (7) environmental and energy factors. An in-depth investigation of the

different aspects of each area was given for transport corridors outside and within the OIC

geography.

In addition three corridors were visited (TRACECA, INSTC, and TAH1), for which a detailed

analysis of the findings is provided. Additional in-depth analyses were conducted for CAREC

corridor 3, Northern Corridor, and Mashreq North-South Corridor. The performance of these

six corridors were assessed using a Multi Criteria Analysis in which 11 corridor experts

assigned weights to the seven framework areas. TRACECA performs the best among the case

study corridors, followed by CAREC. Their mature and well established secretariats clearly

play an important role. This finding also supports one of the study findings that Asian region

performs best among the three OIC regions. Should a prioritization be made, for example to

disperse funding, the order should be: 1) Middle East; 2) Africa; and 3) Asia.

It is clear that political and institutional factors are the most important factors when it comes

to OIC transport corridors. In terms of political factors, political tensions and crises take place

in many OIC member states. As a result, trade restrictions and discriminations are often

applied to one or more corridor countries. These reduce transport efficiencies, increase

transportation costs and consequently decrease the competitiveness of the goods. In terms of

institutional factors, the OIC transport corridors either lack of good governance or do not have

governance.