Thanks to the Almaty Programme of Action, the past
10 years have brought considerable progress in terms
of knowledge and practical solutions to improve the
access of landlocked countries to sea shipping services.
Detailed field research has shed light on the rationale and
high complexity of transit operations, their fragmentation
resulting from stakeholders’ individual interests and
sometimes the conflicting relationships linking business
and the public sector.
Paradoxically, while one of the most important advances in
the analysis was achieved by applying a systemic supply
chain approach to transit operations, applied solutions
have remained partial, affecting only some stages of the
transit chain. Improvements have mostly benefited well-
established and better-structured administrations such
as customs or port authorities. These have benefited
from modern technologies, improving both management
techniques and processes equally, through privatization
in ports or the ASYCUDA programme in customs.
In most cases, however, other sectors, notably land
transport industries and ancillary services central to the
efficiency of transit operations, i.e. customs brokers and
freight forwarders, lag far behind.
The time has come to design a new transit system
paradigm for landlocked countries enabling them to
operate along more reliable transit supply chains. The
transit belt system approach would involve the design of
a system open to all transit cargo, based on a trusted
transit operator scheme guaranteeing uninterrupted
seaport–hinterland transit and vice versa. The proposed
approach would not only ensure reliability of the transit
operation but would also bring higher quality services
and lower traffic with higher volumes, thereby reducing
the carbon footprint.
The 10-year Review Conference on the Implementation of
the Almaty Programme of Action to be convened in 2014,
as decided by the General Assembly in its resolutions
66/214 and 67/222, offers a good opportunity to include
the design of such a paradigm in a new global framework
for transit transport cooperation for landlocked and transit
developing countries in the next decade and to ensure
improved access of landlocked developing countries to
international maritime transport services.
Transit systems can learn best practices from other
transport and logistics systems, such as the maritime
industry or mineral ore value and transport chains and
combine their own experience to develop reliable and
predictable transit logistics chains to increase the
shipping connectivity of landlocked developing countries.