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Governance of Transport Corridors in OIC Member States:

Challenges, Cases and Policy Lessons

13

SECTION 1: FRAMEWORK FOR GOVERNANCE OF TRANSPORT CORRIDOR

1

Introduction

The Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organisation of Islamic

Cooperation (COMCEC) has initiated a study on governance of transport corridors. This study builds

on the recently completed study COMCEC study on Improving Transnational Transport Corridors In

the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases (COMCEC, 2017). The following chapter introduces the

topic of governance of transport corridors, and the importance thereof, and presents the objectives

and methodology of the study, as well as the structure of this report.

1.1

Governance of transport corridors

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 corridors

3

. 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)

4

. 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

;

3

See

: https://www.unece.org/cefact/nat_bodies.html .

4

See Section 6.1 (Central Corridor) of this report.