Governance of Transport Corridors in OIC Member States:
Challenges, Cases and Policy Lessons
132
8.2.2 Specific recommendations focused on governance level
What follows is that four corridor governance levels can be identified, one for each level of integration.
Each governance level requires different actions to be undertaken. Again, the four levels are not a one-
size-fits all policy solution. What is proposed is that a corridor manager should develop the corridor
domains in a balanced way. This does not imply that corridor governance should focus on only one
domain. On the contrary, transforming a topic into action takes time, and each topic should be
discussed on a regular basis to assess its actuality and effectivity. For example, negotiations to carry
the legal framework of SEETO to the next level already started in 2007, only three years after signing
theMoU, but the new treatywas signed by the participants a decade later in 2017. The four governance
levels or stages indicate a certain urgency concerning the development of a corridor:
1. Information exchange: this stage centres around finding common ground between the participants.
Various rounds of expert group meetings are organized to identify shared objectives and to agree
on the content of the first legal framework. Ideally, all topics, including the less obvious ones like
promotion, performance monitoring systems and capacity building strategies, are discussed to
sufficient extent;
2. Cooperation: while broad objectives are agreed upon in the previous stage, the cooperation level
centres around the question how each domain will be translated into concrete action. The general
principle is that the corridor is developed separately within each national context. The first joint
infrastructure projects are realized, but usually there is too little support to leverage corridor plans
over national plans. The function of the secretariat is to maintain the dialogue between all national
contexts;
3. Collaboration: in the collaboration stage, each governance topic is developed on the corridor level
to some extent. The participants are convinced of the added value of corridor development and
have made available substantial resources and power to the corridor management. Now there are
many joint projects, also including soft infrastructure measurements, joint project management
with prioritization methodology, performance monitoring system for corridor management,
various means of promotion, stake holder consultation systems and more;
4. Integration: in the integration stage, the corridor management has significant power over the
participants to develop the corridor. Each governance domain reached maturity and the main
objective for the corridor management now is to ensure the actuality and effectiveness the actions
undertaken for of each governance domain. In this stage, TEN-T erected an additional governance
institution by appointing a corridor coordinator to nine priority routes along the whole network.
Recommendations for the seven governance domains per governance level are presented i
This overview shows that specific recommendations depend on the governance level and objectives of
the corridor. It is recommended to make use of best practices and lessons learned from existing
corridors when moving along the governance framework. For example, currently the MoU of SEETO is
used as a best practice for developing a MoU for the UNESCAP corridors. TEN-T, being the world’s most
advanced corridor, provides a strong basis for best practices.