UNCTAD, WORLD BANK TO DISCUSS ACCESS TO LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES

UNCTAD, WORLD BANK TO DISCUSS ACCESS TO LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES    The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Bank, other international institutions and governments of developed and developing countries have decided to organize an international ministerial meeting in 2003 in Kazakhstan to find ways to improve transport and transit systems.
   The plan for the future meeting was made during an initial gathering of some 200 government experts from 60 landlocked and transit developing countries and donor countries and 11 financial and development institutions in New York on July 30-August 3. The officials met in New York to discuss the “physical and non-physical aspects of transit trade” and recommended the convening of the ministerial meeting in 2003 “to boost the development of efficient transit systems in developing countries,” the UN agency said.
   The Kazakhstan meeting will be organized by UNCTAD, in cooperation with the World Bank, regional development banks and other international and regional organizations.
   At the meeting in New York, the officials stressed that, despite positive developments in transit transport systems, lack of territorial access to the sea, remoteness from world markets, and high transit costs and risks”continue to place serious constraints on the overall socio-economic development of landlocked developing countries,” UNCTAD said. These countries “have been unable to benefit fully from new trade and investment opportunities and need greater assistance if they are to integrate effectively into the global economy,” it added.
   The delegates at the meeting in New York criticized the current downward trend in official development assistance and private financing and asked for increased financial and technical assistance by donor countries and multilateral financial and development institutions.
   “Such assistance could take the form of grants or concessional loans for the construction, maintenance and improvement of transport, storage and other transit-related facilities,” UNCTAD said. Landlocked countries, in turn, “should expedite reforms in the transport sector and related services and increase regional cooperation initiatives,” such as the World Bank’s trade and transport facilitation project in South East Europe and the Southern Africa Development Corridor and Spatial Development Initiative.
   While landlocked and transit developing countries bear the primary responsibility for implementing the measures recommended, the international community should support national, bilateral and sub regional infrastructure and transit transport projects, including one-stop border posts, UNCTAD commented.