Governance of Transport Corridors in OIC Member States:
Challenges, Cases and Policy Lessons
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own common transport policy, TEN-T. In this way, SEETO is being integrated more and more with EU’s
transport network. A key difference with TEN-T remains the insufficient legal framework to demand
the member states to carry through reforms. However, the signing of the Transport Community Treaty
marks an important point in time for SEETO. The near future will showus howwell SEETOwill transfer
into this next governance stage, from cooperation into full collaboration and integration. The success
will be determined by the extent to which the ambition set out in the new legal framework is
maintained, monitored and even sanctioned by the member states.
Good practice of corridor governance
SEETO can be regarded as an advanced corridor in terms of its governance. A key difference with TEN-
T is that SEETO does not have such a sophisticated political body (i.e. as the EU in case of TEN-T),
backing up the development of its transport policy. In this regard, SEETO may be more exemplary for
other corridors, as international corridors often lack a starting governance structure, as provided by
the EU. SEETO provides valuable good practices, as illustrated below:
 SEETO was established by members that did not have any extensive political cooperation project
running between them. In this respect, the MoU from 2004 or the treaty from 2017 can be used by
other organisations as a starting point for developing their own corridor. As many corridors
operate based on a MoU, in particular the Transport Community Treaty may be useful if corridor
organisations wish to elevate their corridor governance to the next level of integration;
 Upon looking at the content of SEETO’s annual action plans, a gradual shift can be identified with
respect to the nature of the proposed actions. Whereas in the initial stages, the focus was on
implementing hard infrastructure investment and harmonized system of data collection, recent
years saw the introduction of soft infrastructure oriented measurements, such as common
maintenance programs or bilateral border crossing agreements. An explanation of this trend could
be that hard infrastructure investments and good data quickly yield measurable results, whereas
soft infrastructure effects are usually more indirect and visible in the long term. While quickly
observable results are not always the most efficient transport interventions, they are helpful for
gaining further support for developing the corridor;
 Support from an international organisation has been essential for SEETO’s development. From the
start, the EU, in collaboration with other organisations, has been a main driver behind SEETO’s
development. The EU can not only draw on its own experience with developing a regional transport
policy, it also has the legitimacy of an independent partner.