COMCEC Transport and Communications
Outlook 2019
56
A large share of the road network in most OIC countries is made up of secondary or regional
roads, or other roads. However, on comparing the composition of the road network in the OIC
countries as a group to the road networks in the United States, and the European Union as a
whole, it is worth noting a big difference in the composition of the road networks in these three
categories. It is striking to see that a large percentage of the total road networks in OIC countries
are motorways and highways.
In OIC countries the proportion of the road network that is a motorway, highway, main, or
national road is almost 12.8% compared to 1.4% for the US, and 6% for the EU. This finding
suggests that the OIC Member States, as a group, are investing more in developing motorways
and highways, and not investing in developing their secondary, regional and other roads. This
focus on developing high-quality and high-volume roads requires large amounts of capital.
Given the limited resources that are available in many OIC Member States, it is very likely that
this focus results in insufficient resources being allocated to maintenance activities.
Besides, for the OIC as a whole, the length of the road network per USD 10 million GDP is about
27. For the US and the EU this number is 3.9 and 6.4, respectively. This is an important
observation insofar that it suggests that many of the OIC countries have road networks that are
too large for the size of their economy. Obviously, this has clear implications for the maintenance
of the road networks as well, i.e. the resources to properly maintain the road networks in these
countries is going to be limited.
Yet at the same time, the OIC countries as a whole have 3.12 km of roads per 1,000 population
compared to 20.7 and 11.6 for the US and EU, respectively. This might suggest that the length of
the road network is inadequate to serve the population.
Regarding road safety, statistics reveal that, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia all have
road mortality rates that are significantly higher than what would be expected in high income
countries internationally. Of the high income countries, only Bahrain has a mortality rate
marginally below the expected norm. Besides, of the middle income countries, Libya and Iran
have remarkably high road mortality rates. For many OIC countries, road mortality seems high
which may offer opportunities to improve safety.
Regarding rail network density, all OIC countries (except Djibouti, Azerbaijan, Tunisia,
Bangladesh, Albania, Turkey, Syria, and Pakistan) have fewer than 1,000 km of rail lines per
100,000 km2 land area, while almost half of the OIC countries have no railway network. Djibouti
with its 781 km of rail lines has the highest rail network density, whereas, Kazakhstan, has the
largest rail network with 14,329 km.
All OIC countries (except Djibouti, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Gabon, Tunisia, and Azerbaijan)
have fewer than 200 km of rail lines per million population. At the individual country level,
Djibouti and Kazakhstan registered the highest level of rail network per capita. Average rail
network per capita of the OIC countries is equal to 92 km per million population while the world