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Facilitating Transit Of Lanlocked Countries

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  • Facilitating Transit Of Lanlocked Countries

    FACILITATING TRANSIT OF LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES

    States News Service
    June 27, 2008 Friday

    The following information was released by the United Nations Conference
    on Trade and Development:

    A "landlocked country" is defined in the United Nations Convention
    on the Law of the Sea as a State that has no sea coast. In practical
    terms, landlocked countries are located in the interior of continents,
    hundreds or even thousands of kilometres from maritime ports. According
    to United Nations definitions, there are 31 landlocked developing
    countries in the world:

    Africa: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic,
    Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Swaziland,
    Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe;

    Asia: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's
    Democratic Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and
    Uzbekistan;

    Europe: Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan and the former Yugoslav Republic
    of Macedonia;

    Latin America: Bolivia and Paraguay.

    There is no official United Nations category of either "transit
    countries" or "transit developing countries". The commonly
    accepted term was generated by the United Nations Office of the High
    Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing
    Countries and Small Island Developing Status in 2004, under the heading
    "transit countries". It excludes all developed transit countries
    as well as such developing countries as Mongolia, Afghanistan and
    several Central Asian countries that are both landlocked countries
    and important transit links.

    Considering the general transport and transit challenges in many
    developing countries, cooperation between the landlocked developing
    countries and their transit neighboring countries in the field of
    transit trade raises complex economic, trade and legal issues that
    require concerted interactions to find mutually acceptable solutions,
    often supported by international cooperation agencies.

    On the one hand - despite some positive developments in transit
    transport systems - high transit costs and non-tariff transit barriers
    continue to impose serious constraints for landlocked countries
    transporting goods to the nearest viable sea ports, thus negatively
    impacting the overall socio-economic development of landlocked
    developing countries. As a result, these countries have often not been
    able to take full benefit of the new trade and investment opportunities
    offered by the process of liberalization and globalization.

    On the other hand, transit countries are often themselves developing
    countries, or even least developed countries, facing serious
    economic problems, including the lack of adequate transit transport
    infrastructure. Therefore, transit countries need to understand the
    benefits of transit through their countries and often need incentives
    to facilitate transit transport.

    In this context, UNCTAD has, in the period 2005-2007, led a United
    Nations Development Account Project aiming at facilitating transit
    transport cooperation along three regional transit corridors
    between the following countries: Zambia-Namibia, Laos-Thailand
    and Paraguay-Uruguay. By bringing together clusters of users,
    government agencies and service providers, it was able to develop
    practical solutions. Developing trust and a sense of ownership among
    the different actors was important for reducing bottlenecks in the
    physical and procedural chains.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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