Governance of Transport Corridors in OIC Member States:
Challenges, Cases and Policy Lessons
1
Executive Summary
Background
Developing transport corridors is not a new phenomenon; in fact, transport corridors have a long
history, with the ancient Silk Route as an outstanding example. Notwithstanding the long history,
nowadays, there is a strong interest in developing transport corridors, especially in the light of trade
facilitation. There are good reasons to do so. Trade is one of the indispensable engines of growth,
contributing to economic development and poverty reduction in poorer countries by creating job
opportunities and promoting competition.
A number of recent and ongoing initiatives reflect the importance of trade and transport facilitation.
The World Bank, for example, has developed a vast amount of initiatives in its Trade and Transport
Facilitation Facility, as reflected in the report Unlocking Trade for Low-Income Countries: Report of
the Trade Facilitation Facility (World Bank, 2015). Also, the establishment of a great number of
National Trade and Transport Facilitation Committees (NTTFC), supported by amongst others the UN
Regional Commissions and UNCTAD, can be seen in the light of the importance given to trade and
transport corridors1. Furthermore, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Central Asia Regional Economic
Cooperation (CAREC) Programme places strong emphasis on developing transport corridors. This is
also the case for the recently launched Eurasian Transport Corridors , being developed under initiative
of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)2. These
UNESCAP corridors are in line with the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, a development strategy
proposed by Chinese Government that focuses on connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian
countries. COMCEC has also recognised the importance of transport corridors, which has resulted in
the recently completed and above-mentioned study on Improving Transnational Transport Corridors.
Most of the above-mentioned initiatives acknowledge the fact that trade and transport facilitation and
corridor development needs to be a combination of infrastructure investment and a range of softer
activities. This combination of hard (infrastructure) and soft measures is reflected by the reasons
mentioned by the World Bank (World Bank, 2014) for developing a corridor approach, as presented
below:
 It is critical to provide landlocked countries in particular with basic access to maritime ports for
their overseas trade;
 Regional integration improves the growth prospects of middle- and low-income countries,
especially landlocked countries. Transport corridors provide a visible and direct opportunity to
bring about regional integration;
 Regulatory and other constraints to trade facilitation attain practical relevance at the corridor level,
enabling the design of appropriate interventions;
 Corridors provide a spatial framework for organizing cooperation and collaboration between
countries and public and private sector agencies involved in providing trade and transport
infrastructure and services.
Trade and regional integration, supported by the development of transport corridors, is relevant for
the OIC member countries . The recently completed COMCEC study indicates that:
1 See
2 See Section 6.1 (Central Corridor) of this report.