Improving Transnational Transport Corridors

In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases

move their goods to the right place, at the right time, in the right condition, and at the right

price. For some countries in the sub region, inadequate transport infrastructure and high

logistics service costs have constrained economic corridor development and integration.

Physical connectivity between neighboring countries will be significantly improved on

completion of these investments in infrastructure. Improved infrastructure, coupled with

expanded cross-border cooperation among countries, can accelerate the process of integrating

the sub region’s economic corridors into the rest of the world and the global market.

According to the ADB

, a highly efficient logistics system means goods and people move

around the sub region without excessive cost or delay. This improvement promotes further

economic growth and regional development, thus contributing to poverty reduction. An

Economic Corridor has the following characteristics:

Covers smaller, defined geographic space, usually, straddling a central transport artery

such as a road, rail line, or canal;

Emphasizes bilateral rather than multilateral initiatives, focusing on strategic nodes

particularly at border crossings between two countries;

Highlights physical planning of the corridor and its surrounding area, to concentrate

infrastructure development and achieve the most positive benefits

Cross Border Transport Agreements

According to the ADB

, Cross-Border Transport Agreement (CBTA) is a compact and

comprehensive multilateral instrument that covers all the relevant aspects of cross-border

transport facilitation in one document. These include:

Single-stop/single-window customs inspection

Cross-border movement of persons (that is, visas for persons engaged in transport

operations)

Transit traffic regimes, including exemptions from physical customs inspection, bond

deposit, escort, and agriculture and veterinary inspection

Requirements that road vehicles will have to meet to be eligible for cross-border traffic

Exchange of commercial traffic rights; and

Infrastructure including road and bridge design standards, road signs, and signals. The

CBTA applies to selected and mutually agreed upon routes and points of entry and exit

in the signatory countries.

Vehicle Design

To increase the efficiency of the vehicles operating within the corridors, then it will be

important to consider, for example, optimized vehicle specifications that better tailor truck and

trailer components, weight and length of vehicle combinations, increased level of modularity

and innovation in the trailer market (e.g. the uptake of light weight high volume low bed

ADB,

ADB,