Improving Transnational Transport Corridors
In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases
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Trade Area (PFTA) then monitoring non-tariff barrier issues is carried out continuously in real
time65.
The performance of the corridor is monitored through the Northern Transport Corridor
Observatory. It is a monitoring tool that measures 30 indicators on the performance along the
corridor. The Observatory tracks the indicators using raw data collected from the stakeholders
in all the member states. Information provides clear picture on various indicators, enabling to
identify the bottlenecks that needs to be resolved to improve on the efficiency and sequentially
improving in the trade and operations along the corridor. The data is available on
to trusted users on a subscription basis.
4.6.5. Social factors
The five countries of the Northern Corridor have a total land area of over 3 million square
kilometers and a population of approximately 140 million people, which offers further
opportunities for economic development. These countries possess enormous economic
potential, which is yet to be fully exploited. The potential is in several sectors including
agriculture, fisheries, tourism and mining. The potential investment in infrastructure and other
sectors would result in the reduction of poverty through employment generation and income
creation, which would result in the improvement of the quality of lives of the people of the sub-
region. This also means that the population may be able to afford and be willing to pay for
infrastructure services such as water, electricity, telephones and public transport as well as
other consumer goods, thus boosting the whole economy. Much depends on the mobility of
labor, both internally within each country but also regionally as countries integrate further.
There is a positive view taken of regional migration in the participating countries. The
Regional Migration Policy Framework comprises the following key components, technical
cooperation and capacity building, information collection, dissemination and sharing. The
formulation and harmonization at the national and regional legislation, policies and
administrative practices are with regards to management of both legal and illegal variants of
labour migration; border management especially as it relates to irregular migration, human
trafficking and smuggling and finally the mainstreaming of migration in development planning
.66 Actual data on regional movements of peoples between all the NTTC members has not been
forthcoming however, one of the major benefits of migration is seen as remittances which, for
Uganda alone received USD 245 million in untaxed revenues in 2015 from 6500 migrant
workers. In this regard, it must be noted that migration to Europe and elsewhere will be
lessened as African countries become more economically developed. The compilation of social
indicators in merely confirms the underlying socio-economic status of each country
on the Northern Corridor that its incremental development aims to counteract. This is
especially the case with South Sudan that still lacks all the essential components of
connectivity that will enable it to develop and improve the quality of life of its citizens. It is to
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