Governance of Transport Corridors in OIC Member States:
Challenges, Cases and Policy Lessons
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7.1.5 Infrastructure: financing, planning and programming
Financing
The participants are yet to agree on the financing principles of the corridor institutions. Usually, the
lion’s share of funding comes from public parties. In Asia, currently 92% of infrastructure investments
is financed by the public sector (Comprehensive planning of Eurasian Transport corridors, 2017, p.94).
Another major (potential) source for financing is the private sector. UNESCAP’s Guidebook on Public-
Private Partnership in Infrastructure can be a useful source on the benefits and various structure of
PPP’s. Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) may be another source. MDBs active in the region are:
World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Islamic
Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, New Development Bank, Eurasian
Development Bank and ECO Trade and Development Bank. Other financing options are provided by
various investment development funds, official development assistance agencies or direct
partnerships of countries that have interest in financing transport infrastructure in the region.
The estimated costs of upgrading the railway (double-tracking, electrification and the construction of
new railways) is $85 billion. Priority investments, i.e. extremely low-quality sections, key railway
sections or sections requiring minimal investment effort are estimated at $32 billion. Road
infrastructure investments aimed at upgrading the roads to at least AH Class II are estimated at $19,6
billion, with priority investments amounting to $15,3 billion. With respect to investments in dry ports,
sea ports and border crossing provisions, these are more difficult to estimate. A rough approximation
of $20 billion is given for all three corridors.
Planning and programming
So far, UNESCAP has been responsible for the financing, planning and programming of the Eurasian
Corridors. In the Regional Action Programme for Sustainable Transport Connectivity in Asia and the
Pacific, phase 1 (2017-2021), UNESCAP set out seven areas in which specific objectives for transport
improvement are defined. The areas are:
 Regional transport infrastructure connectivity;
 Regional transport operational connectivity;
 Euro-Asian transport connectivity;
 Transport connectivity for least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small
island developing States;
 Sustainable urban transport;
 Rural transport connectivity to wider networks;
 Improving road safety;
 To achieve the objectives formulated for each domain, the parties involved agreed to work together
towards establishing an institution responsible for achieving the objectives.
The planning and programming of infrastructure interventions are still to be decided upon. A starting
point for developing an action plan is The UNESCAP Eurasian Corridors study (2017), in which an
inventory of the road and rail infrastructure is made. Participant may supply relevant national studies
if necessary. Guided by Steering Committee and the ministerial meeting, the CTO will be responsible
for publishing Action Plans and establishing priority rating or planning mechanisms. UNESCAP will be
responsible for providing data for the first action plan, including an inventory of status of network per
transport mode; current and forecasted traffic flows; indication of maintenance costs per mode and an
identification of main bottlenecks, including a work plan on how to address these bottlenecks