UN advocate for poor States says long-term investment vital for transport systems

Long-term financial assistance is critical to establishing efficient transport systems that can connect the world’s poorest landlocked countries to countries with coastlines, the United Nations advocate for those States told a conference today.

Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, said considerable investment is needed to develop, upgrade and maintain reliable transport infrastructure in such countries.

He told a meeting on the issue in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, that multilateral, regional and bilateral donors can all step up with more focused and longer-term assistance to landlocked countries that depend on the transit transport systems to deliver their goods to the rest of the world.

Mr. Chowdhury added that so-called “transit transport” systems can also receive a boost from greater South-South cooperation as most transit neighbours of landlocked developing countries are themselves developing nations. Administrative and customs delays between countries could be minimized, thereby lowering transport costs and spurring further investment.

“The success of our endeavours will indeed depend on the strength of our partnership,” he said, referring to a process launched in 2003 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to improve transit transport systems in landlocked developing countries.