Governance of Transport Corridors in OIC Member States:
Challenges, Cases and Policy Lessons
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informed of actions planned or undertaken under this Memorandum of Understanding and its
comments should be taken into account as far as possible, either by granting active observer status
to representatives of the private sector in the steering committee or by way of regular meetings
between the private sector and the secretariat;
 The Participants jointly aim to create the legal and financial conditions necessary for private sector
participation in the development and operation of the Network;
 Participants will examine the possibility of setting up common bodies or regional companies to
carry out actions necessary to develop the Network;
 Taking into account the constraints of national law, they agree to investigate possibilities of
entrusting achievement of the relevant goals of this Memorandum of Understanding at least in part
to private enterprises.
One-stop shop concept in the corridor governance
No one-stop shop system is in place in the region. As of January 2018, The SEETO secretariat is
currently drafting a ToR with Connecta in the framework of the fourth pillar of EU’s Connectivity
Agenda on border crossing procedures. The project concerns investigating the possibilities of
introducing a one-stop-shop governance concept and the implementation of a border management
system.
3.2.5 Infrastructure: financing, planning and programming
Sources of financing available for governance
As laid down in the MoU, the secretariat is entirely funded by financial contributions from its members,
dependent upon the size of the economy. The budget only covers execution of MCA tasks, while the
implementation of project tasks heavily depends on external financing and requires additional sources
of funding. According to the MoU: “the annual budget of SEETO may include though not be limited to
expenses arising from personnel remuneration, office running costs, the information system and
communication, overheads, operational expenses, regional studies and the annual meeting of
ministers, other meetings and workshops.”
Financing by governments and international organisations
Governments fund the secretariat. As of 2015, 29% of the funding for projects comes from
governments. 39% (as of 2015) is financed through IFI loans; 2% by EU Funds; Other sources cover
27%, mostly consisting of China’s EximBank, Russian Loans, Abu Dhabi fund, IDB, Italian Government,
Kuwait Fund, OPEC, etc. – these sources show the sharpest rise in the last couple of years (SEETO,
2015).
Planning
There are various levels of planning: broad plans are agreed upon by the respective ministries of each
countries, which are narrowed down multi-annual plans. Yearly action plans are published (short-
term actions), which can target:
 Reforms to make the transport network & system more competitive, reliable and safe:
- Implementing a rail reform action;
- Introducing and implementing EU best practices for improvement of road safety in the region;
- Develop maintenance programme for the entire core network.
 Introducing new technologies for optimizing operations and better use of intermodal transport: