Global Partnership for Sustainable Transport

Progress Update Meeting

April 19, 2016 Harvard Club of New York City

Global Silk Routes Initiative

By Juliette Passer, Esq.

There are the words of Victor Hugo, which read:  “... The day shall come, when there will be no battlefields other than markets opening up to trade, and minds opening up to ideas...”

Sustainable Development for All Transport Modes

Modernization

Coordination

Transparency

Internetization

Standardization

Harmonization

Simplification

©Juliette Passer for Eurasia Transit Advisory Group, 2016

1. The reduction, simplification and standardization of data and documentation required by customs and other agencies;

2. The creation of an environment that allows for systematic dialogue between government and the business community;

3. The coordination and cooperation between customs and other control agencies, with the view to achieve a “single window”;

4. The harmonization of regulations of border agencies;

5. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are important tools for promoting trade facilitation by enhancing transparency, ensuring consistency and supporting simplification;

6. Use of risk management and authorized trader schemes (AEO) by customs and other agencies at the border; and

7. Establishment of transit corridors, which is a route between two or more countries that have agreed to apply facilitated procedures.

Transportation Policy Interfaces

Land, Maritime or

Air

Urban orRural

Transport Policies

Private orPublic

©Juliette Passer for Eurasia Transit Advisory Group, 2016

The relationship between transport systems and human societies is multi-faceted; the interfaces occur at various geographical, institutional, and socio-economic levels with vastly different priorities for developing, landlocked and developed nations.

Defining a sustainability perspective on transport is therefore quite challenging, so numerous are the angles from which it can be approached.

Global Silk Routes Initiative Actions Areas

Trade GSRIFacilitation

Infrastructure Development

& Financing

Best Practices

©Juliette Passer for Eurasia Transit Advisory Group, 2016

(i) removal of impediments to globalization of trade along the Silk Routes, including facilitation of efficiency in border crossings and implementation of relevant UN conventions, such as the Harmonization Convention and the TIR Convention;

 (ii)development of best practices for

investments in transport infrastructure, including ancillary infrastructure and public-private partnerships; and 

(iii)exchange of information on best practices between private and public players across all modes of transport and relevant countries along the Silk Routes necessary for trade facilitation.

Land transport and transit are of great concern to LLDCs

There are 32 LLDCs, 16 are located in Africa, 10 in Asia, 4 in Europe and 2 in Latin America.

Only 9 LLDCs have over 50 per cent of their roads paved. The average distance to the nearest seaport for LLDCs is 1,370 kms. Due to often long transit times and high transport costs the share of LLDCs in world trade in goods continues to stagnate at around 1 per cent.

Transit CorridorsIntergovernmental Agreement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States on the Facilitation of International Road Transport (SCO Agreement).The SCO Agreement opens more than 15,000 km of the Asian Highway routes for transport operation and services, with the longest route stretching more than 9,000 km from Saint Petersburg, Russia to Lianyungang, China. The SCO Agreement will also facilitate landlocked Central Asia’s access to sea by road through China and the Russian Federation.

China's One Belt, One Road initiative

Photo: Reuters

The Chinese Government identified five major objectives for the belt:

1B1R - I Policy coordination - expanding economic

collaboration; 1B1R - II Facilities connectivity - improving rail,

road and fiber-optic connectivity;

1B1R - III Unimpeded Trade - promoting trade and investment;

1B1R - IV Financial integration - facilitating currency conversion, bond markets, cross-border

transactions and multilateral financial cooperation; and

1B1R - V People-to-People Bond - boosting cultural, educational and

personal cooperation and exchanges.

Other Action AreasTRADE FACILITATION TOOLS FOR MARITIME TRANSPORTATION SECTOR.

FACILITATING EURASIAN TRANSPORT LINKAGES BY ESTABLISHING REGIONAL FREIGHT EXCHANGES.

PROMOTING REGIONAL CONNECTIVITY WIT DIGITAL NAVIGATION ROAD AND ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE MAPS.

 

FACILITATING DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE ANCILLARY ROAD TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE.

BUILDING HUMAN AND INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY - SCHOOL OF TRANSPORT DIPLOMACY

ACCESSING MARKET OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE RISING TIDE OF E-COMMERCE TRAFFIC.

Stakeholders of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Transport

NGOs GPST&

Civil Societies

Governments: Local &

National

Private Sector: All Transport

Modes

©Juliette Passer for Eurasia Transit Advisory Group, 2016

The overall objective of the GPST is to provide an international framework for multilateral dialogue on policy options and possible measures to enhance sustainable transport systems globally.

What is needed is an open exchange of information and an ongoing cooperative dialogue among all stakeholders, which is want the new Global Silk Routes Initiative offers for today’s complex and diverse global market.

Thank you

© Eurasia Transit Advisory Group, 2016