Developing Tajikistan's transport sector

Asian Development Bank
February 2011

As a small landlocked country, Tajikistan depends on external trade for its development, and its export-driven businesses in agriculture and industry require transport that is fast, reliable, and cheap. Tajikistan must increase its connectivity to world markets. The country partnership strategy for 2010–2014 aims to develop transport infrastructure, build human capacity, and achieve good governance. Tajikistan is active in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program, which aims to develop seamless connectivity in the region. Tajikistan has also developed a national transport sector master plan with Asian Development Bank (ADB) assistance. The plan is supportive of CAREC’s Transport and Trade Facilitation Strategy (2008–2018) and Tajikistan’s national development program. ADB will provide financial and technical assistance to support its implementation.

Contents

• Preface
• Transport Sector Profile
• Challenges
• Opportunities
• Strategic Direction
• Development Action Plan

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The Cost of Being Landlocked

Arvis, Jean Francois; Marteau, Jean-Francois; Raballand, Gael
World Bank
July 2010

This book proposes a new analytical framework to interpret and model the constraints faced by logistics chains in landlocked countries. The case of LLDCs has naturally received special attention for decades, including a specific set of development priorities based on the idea of dependence over the transit state. In this context, efforts to tackle the cost of being landlocked have been mainly directed to ensure or facilitate freedom of transit through regional/multilateral conventions, and to develop regional transport infrastructure. In contrast, analysis of service delivery constraints has been seriously neglected and could explain the disappointing implementation of regional transit agreements and massive investments in corridors for exports diversification in landlocked economies.

Based on extensive data collection in several regions of the world, this book argues that although landlocked developing countries do face high logistics costs, these do not result from poor road infrastructure –contrary to conventional wisdom-since transport prices mainly depend on trucking market structure and organization. In turn, high logistics costs depend on low logistics reliability and predictability, which are sensitive to rent-seeking and governance issues.

This volume proposes three types of measures with the largest potential gains in total logistics costs: (i) measures to increase supply chain predictability and to reduce hedging costs, (ii) measures to enhance best practices in governance, in order to phase out rent-seeking activities and therefore overhead logistics costs, (iii) reforms to increase efficiency in market structure.

Hence, in practical terms supply chain predictability and performance might be improved by pursuing the following initiatives: (i) enhancing initiation of transit at the gateway or port through a streamlined transit regime, preferably using IT and based on quality and risk assessment system; (ii) improving clearance at destination; (iii) boosting market competition, by dismantling anticompetitive practices and upgrading entry requirements based on compliance and quality standards; (iv) re-engineering of transit regimes.

Libro:
En Ingenta Connect

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Paper anterior:
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4258
Junio 2007

Connecting landlocked developing countries to markets: Trade corridors in the 21st century

Arvis, Jean-Francois; Smith, Graham; Carruthers, Robin
World Bank
April 2011

This book aims to help the policymaker and development community in general to understand the nature of the problems and policy dilemmas that landlocked countries face to trade with the rest of the World.

This volume presents an important breakthrough in the literature, by focusing on a new conceptual framework that challenges the previous paradigm based on physical infrastructure and state-led access solutions, embodied in many treaties. By recognizing that the main access problems for landlocked countries occur in the territory of the transit country, this volume provides a new approach to understand the set of incentives that drive the political economy and shape the institutions governing goods’ transit along corridors.

Overall, the policy levers available to overcome these barriers are based on universally applied principles, recognizing the need for re-engineering current transit regimes which have been implemented with little success outside Europe. A risk-approach to border control and technology use, along with trust building between private operators and public agencies, all point toward the need to encourage and formally recognize higher-quality trucking companies. Meanwhile, other modes of transportation represent an alternative to road transit, but they also entail disadvantages, suggesting that their role is likely to remain limited to niche segments, specific commodities and exceptional market circumstances.

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