Improving Transnational Transport Corridors

In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases

circular and cumulative causation

gives rise to the idea that growth is focused on corridors

linking places that are a highly interactive

. That there needs to be a common set of goals

around which there could be political adhesion is prerequisite. In some cases, it may be driven

by land locked countries demanding secure trade routes, in others it may be economic and

social cohesion as in the European Union, but a driver for political integration is prerequisite.

That transport and also energy and environment are seen as transnational issues that have the

potential to unite different territories, has emerged in the last 40 years. As regards transport,

the corridor approach has been particularly useful in drawing together contiguous countries.

The modus operandi nearly always follows a pattern of memorandum of understanding which

sets out a range of commonly share objectives, which have no legal force; to an international

treaty that commits governments to a range of economic, financial and legal obligations that

require domestic ratification. Always an essential component of this process is the creation of a

transport corridor coordinating entity.

Thus, it is clear that a prime motive for corridor development may be political rather than

economic. This can be seen in some former communist countries, and along the TRACECA,

which Russia has more than hinted, has become a means for EU expansionism (Demirag, 2004,

Burkhanov, 2007). Corridors have also been developed for military and strategic purposes

rather than economic. An example of this is the Moscow-Berlin axis. This heavy haul railway

and four-lane highway provided the Red Army with a transport chain. The extra spacing

between the broad gauge rail tracks accommodated the movement of tanks and artillery.

Indeed, historians may argue it was to counter Napoleonic and Hitleresque escapades into

Mother Russia. Now renamed and, some may say, rebranded, the TEN T Corridor II or the East

Wind Container Corridor, may now have more economic than strategic objectives (Emerson

and Vinokurov, 2009). It can be noted that China’s foray into the world of rail corridor

building, may also be partly driven political motives (Wang et al., 2009) and may been seen as

vectors of Chinese intensions (Garver, 2006).

The ownership of transport corridor assets also warrants some consideration here. Invariably,

within a corridor group, there will be varying levels of economic development, so it is expected

that foreign direct investment (FDI) flows along the corridor in tandem with trade and

transport. It should be possible, as it is in the EU, for third countries to own transport assets,

without difficulty. The overriding criteria for the successful transport corridor is that of

providing unimpeded access to good and services, including transport, whether it be state

owned infrastructure such as major highways or ports which may be owned by a municipality.

With this in place, corridor development may be realized by both public and private sector.

Circular cumulative causation is a theory developed by Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal in the year 1956. It is a multi-

causal approach where the core variables and their linkages are delineated. The idea behind it is that a change in one form of

an institution will lead to successive changes in other institutions.

accessed Jun 9, 2017].