Governance of Transport Corridors in OIC Member States:
Challenges, Cases and Policy Lessons
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2 Transport Corridor Governance: Concepts and Framework
2.1 Definition and concepts
Transport corridors
From a spatial perspective, corridors refer to a geographical band linking two or more economic hubs
by transport infrastructure and flows of various modes of transport (Rodrique et al. 2006). However,
such a definition from a geographic point of view does not fully explain why the notion of corridors
has gained so much attention by policy makes all over the world. It is the interrelatedness between
corridors and regional, economic, social or political development that makes corridor governance a
useful exercise.
For that reason, others have defined corridors from a more holistic perspective, using terms such as
development corridor, transit trade corridor (Hope & Sox, 2015) or economic corridor (Uberoi, 2014).
For Uberoi (2014, p. 6, 7), an economic corridor refers to “infrastructure – soft and hard – that helps
facilitate national and/or regional economic activities. Beyond this, it implies linear connectivity along
a physical transportation artery, such as a road, rail line or waterway within a defined space or
location, linking various nodes of production, distribution and consumption, and supported by
programmes, policies, institutions and agreements that facilitate cooperation between the economic
clusters along the corridor route”. The trade angle is emphasized in the Trade and Transport Corridor
Management Toolkit (World Bank, 2014), which introduces the concept of a trade and transport
corridor, defined as a coordinated bundle of transport and logistics infrastructure and services that
facilitates trade and transport flows between major centres of economic activity.
The necessity of approaching corridors from a policy perspective, as well as the fact the corridors are
not limited to national boundaries, is crucial for the development of corridors. The recently completed
COMCEC initiated study on Improving Transnational Transport Corridors in the OIC Member
Countries: Concepts and Cases (COMCEC, 2017), acknowledges this and defines corridors as lines of
concentration of socio economic activity that connect two or more sovereign countries. Multi-national
transport corridors are viewed in a context of agreements between states facilitating trade through
infrastructure investments and development of commercial services for moving freight.
Governance and management
A national or regional body, constituted by the public or private sector or a combination of the two,
typically governs a transport corridor. The governance of the transport corridor is a critical aspect of
the functioning of the transport corridor, which is recognized by COMCEC and has resulted in this
study, aimed at establishing a conceptual foundation of the governance of multinational transport
corridors in the OIC Member States5.
The concepts of governance and management of transport corridors in this study are defined in the
following way:
 Governance deals with doing the right things and concentrates on high-level decision-making
process, primarily setting strategic directions;
 Management concentrates on doing things right and concentrates on day-to-day administration
and implementing the systems of governance.
5 This to build on the results of the work that has been carried out on transport corridors by COMCEC recently.