Improving Transnational Transport Corridors
In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases
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transport corridors. As such, commercial risks and insurance premiums are high, and
consequently so are trading costs and inertia to trade. This situation partly explains why
the OIC corridor countries trade mainly with Europe and the rest of the world (where
legal liabilities are more advanced) than with the neighboring countries.
6. Technical and Operational Factors
A common characteristic of OIC transport corridors in terms of technical and operational
factors, is a significant shortage and underutilization of rail infrastructure. Low
interoperability and lack of interconnections are the main challenges, although these are
not only the domains of the OIC corridors. Several TEN-T corridors are still facing road
and rail interoperability issues.
In terms of custom controls harmonization, many OIC countries have been utilizing the
ASYCUDA systems although at different stages.
7. Environmental and Energy Factors
Awareness or at least discussions and regulation on environmental and energy efficiency
issues are almost absent in the OIC transport corridor development, most likely due to
wide availability of oil. Whilst oil remains affordable, alternative fuels are viewed as
expensive and unnecessary and there is little discussion on modal choice based on
environmental consideration.
ummarizes how the transport corridors of each OIC region perform in the seven
framework areas. It can be seen that Asian region performs best among the three OIC regions.
Both African and the Middle East regions perform less than Asia. As such, should a
prioritization be made, for example to disperse funding, the order should be : 1) Middle East;
2) Africa; and 3) Asia.
Table 70: Performance of transport corridors in each OIC region
Framework area Asian region African region Middle East region
Political and institutional factors + 0 -
Economic factors + - 0
Trade Facilitation + 0 -
Social factors + - -
Safety, security and legal liability 0 - -
Technical and operational factors + - 0
Environmental and energy factors - - -
Notes: + (good), 0 (neutral), – (bad)