Improving Transnational Transport Corridors
In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases
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Updating of customs data system to Asycuda World
Jordan and Syria have already embarked on this process, but are at different stages of progress
with Jordan being more advanced. Technical assistance would be provided to develop a
coordination center to facilitate harmonization between the Asycuda systems for all Mashreq
North-South Corridor countries that use this system.
Common technical standards
Common technical standards are already in place in the Mashreq region, due to the application
of the ESCWA Road Agreement that entered into force in 2003. These include road signs and
signals, dual carriageways, and service facilities along the corridor. Other common standards
like vehicles standards, driving licensing requirements, and road signage are also in place91 .
4.8.8. Environmental and Energy Factors
In all information sources that have been reviewed, environmental and energy issues are
completely missing. The low cost of fuel in the corridor countries explains this. As discussed
before, freight on this corridor is predominantly carried by road transport. When discussing
energy efficiency, reducing dependency on road transport is needed. However, this solution
seems to be unfeasible in the near future. The road transport demand will remain high due to
high-standard road infrastructure in the region and the insufficiency of the existing railway
network.
4.8.9. Corridor Performance Monitoring
Based on the Road Transport Consultancy Services for Developing a LAS Trade and Road
Transport Facilitation Strategy (2013), the average driving speed on this corridor is 63.3
km/h, which shows that the roads are in good condition and/or do not face major problems
with traffic jam. However, the average speed including stops is 18.5 km/h, which is very low.
Major problems are related with border crossing and waiting queues with very long waiting
times. The waiting time in queue and the duration of border control is around 46% of the total
travel time.
The costs en route are relatively low compared to other corridors in Asia and Africa with an
average of USD 529 per truck trip. Unofficial costs are also very low with an average of only 24
USD per truck trip.
The following table concludes the above-mentioned information. There is no information
whether such monitoring/study is being undertaken regularly. This is also due to the fact that
this corridor is not a transport corridor; as such systematic collection of corridor performance
monitoring data is absent.
91 Based on online survey conducted by Fimotions in 2017.