UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE

1. UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE PROSPECTS OF TRANSPORT AND TRANSIT DEVELOPMENT IN CENTRAL ASIA AND THE CASPIAN REGION UNECE TRANSPORT RELATED ACTIVITIES IN CENTRAL ASIA AND THE CASPIAN REGION Miroslav Jovanovic, UNECE Transport Facilitation and Economics Section Ashgabat 15 May 2012 1

2. UNECE ACTIVITIES STRUCTURE • CONVENTION ON THE HARMONIZATION OF FRONTIER CONTROLS OF GOODS • TIR CONVENTION • EURO-ASIAN TRANSPORT LINKS

3. UNECE ACTIVITIES CONVENTION ON THE HARMONIZATION OF FRONTIER CONTROLS OF GOODS, 1982 56 Contracting Parties, including EU Aim: to reduce the number and duration of border controls and, thus, facilitate international transport of goods… … through national and international cooperation between control authorities and harmonization of control procedures Turkmenistan is encouraged to join

4. UNECE ACTIVITIES

5. UNECE ACTIVITIES HARMONIZATION CONVENTION: BENEFITS • Shorter border delays • Lower transport and export/import costs • Lower border operating costs for State budget • More efficient investments in border facilities

6. UNECE ACTIVITIES TIR CONVENTION, 1975: CURRENT STATUS • 68 Contracting Parties, including EU (applicable in 56 countries) • More than 3 million operations per year • The only global transit procedure in place • Facilitates international transport and protects the budget interests of Contracting Parties • No restrictions on the modes of transport used (road vehicles and containers) • Based on public-private partnership

7. UNECE ACTIVITIES

8. UNECE ACTIVITIES TIR CONVENTION: BENEFITS • Customs Authorities • Efficient Customs procedures for transit traffic • Provision of an international guarantee • Transport Sector • Simplification and harmonization of Customs formalities • Reduced transport costs

9. UNECE ACTIVITIES EURO-ASIAN TRANSPORT LINKS • Part of UN global interregional transport links project • UNDA Capacity Building • Phases: 2003-07; 2008 - to date • Objectives: • To identify Euro-Asian inland transport links • To strengthen the capacities of national officials • Put in operation Euro-Asian transport links Participants: 27 countries along on the Euro-Asian land bridge

10. UNECE ACTIVITIES Phase I - Main Achievements • Selection of main Euro-Asian road, rail and inland water transport routes, transshipment points & ports • Prioritization of projects on agreed methodology • First analysis of physical and non-physical obstacles • Establishment of database and GIS maps • Organization of 6 EGM and many capacity building national, regional and interregional workshops • Joint ECE-ESCAP study with results, conclusions and recommendations on the way to proceed

11. UNECE ACTIVITIES

12. UNECE ACTIVITIES Phase 2 - Main Achievements • ECE Group of Experts to monitor and coordinate EATL developments • EATL Phase II (2008 - to date) objectives and achievements • Wider geographical coverage; • Continue projects’ prioritization and implementation • Put emphasis on facilitation aspects; • Further develop and update GIS database; • Promote harmonized legislation and procedures • Strengthen capacities of national officials • Improve operational performance, including border crossing, compare inland transport options with maritime • 27 countries active participation (NFP) and contribution • Partial funding from Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Turkey, OSCE, BSEC • UNECE secretariat and technical backstopping and support

13. UNECE ACTIVITIES Phase 2 - Report • EATL priority routes and EATL ports, transshipment points and terminals: Extended to include the 9 newly involved counties • Study transport statistics, flows and trends showed: Rapid growth of Europe-Asian trade, increasing inter-Asian trade trends • 404 projects proposed - total cost US$ 246 billion. • - 287 projects along EATL routes with US$ 189 billion cost and • - 117 projects of national importance with US$ 57 billion cost; • Comparison study of Euro-Asian maritime routes with selected rail routes: In five out of the nine scenarios, rail transport performs better than maritime for both the cost and time!

14. UNECE ACTIVITIES Phase 2 - Report • SWOT Analysis: Useful information on strong and weak points of EATL inland transport links, potential for further development and threats • EATL GIS application is available at http://apps.unece.org/eatl/  • Non-physical obstacles to transport along the Euro-Asian Transport routes are identified based on questionnaires and field missions: Long waiting times at BCP some times a whole day; few work 24H/7Days, long delays for veterinary, phyto-sanitary, passport, transit, visa and other controls

15. UNECE ACTIVITIES

16. UNECE ACTIVITIES

17. UNECE ACTIVITIES EATL Phase 3 • Group of experts: coordination, monitoring, analysis and policy recommendations to make EATL operational • Analyse and compare existing transport needs with inland transport solutions • Facilitate and simplify customs procedures and assist capacity-building • Support national transport and trade facilitation action plans and committees • Promote initiatives and new projects • Case studies and best practices • Further improve GIS internet free-access application and develop a web tool to compare inland transport options and maritime • Extend geographic coverage and promote inter-country cooperation for the coordinated development of EATL routes • EATL Meeting of Ministers of Transport in Geneva (forthcoming) • Funding of Phase 3 – sponsors are welcome

18. UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE Thank you! http://live.unece.org/trans/welcome.html 18