Regional: Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation: Knowledge Sharing and Services in Transport and Transport Facilitation

Transport / Transport policies and institutional development

A refined CAREC Transport and Trade Facilitation Strategy 2020 (hereafter, TTFS 2020) was endorsed during the Twelfth Ministerial Conference on CAREC held in Astana on 23 and 24 October 2013. Compared to the original strategy, TTFS 2020 places a greater emphasis on multimodal corridor network development, trade and border crossing service improvements, and improvements to sustainability and quality of service, for improving trade and competitiveness. Against this backdrop, the TA will address the following issues:

For several CAREC countries, transport sector investments and programming have been focused on linear infrastructure development (especially roads) with inadequate consideration given to modal integration, nodal and non-linear infrastructure improvements, and sustainability issues. There is now growing interest in many CAREC countries to reorient their policy and programs in line with the aforementioned TTFS 2020 operational priorities. However, these CAREC countries are constrained, despite their interest, to effectively deliver on these new areas as they have inadequate know-how and capabilities (policy, regulatory, institutional) to plan and implement appropriate policies and programs in these areas. At the same time, there is a wealth of experience in other countries (including developing ones) in implementing policies and programs in these areas, which CAREC countries can benefit from. Hence, there is a need to step up both policy and advisory support and scale up knowledge transfer to CAREC countries so they can effectively deliver on these TTFS 2020 priorities.

Previously, a number of knowledge services have been provided to CAREC countries on some of the TTFS 2020 priority areas, including seminars, trainings, technical assistance, etc. by ADB and development partners. However, this knowledge service provision has largely been one-off and silo-based, follow-up and operational linkages have been limited, and the organization and management of these knowledge resources poor thereby, constraining the effectiveness of these knowledge services. Going forward, there is a need for a knowledge management function to solicit good practices on these new TTFS 2020 priorities, index and catalog both past and new information, ensure dissemination of this knowledge in a form that is of operational use, and serve as an information broker to facilitate knowledge exchange between and among various stakeholders.

1. Policy advisory and analytical work on selected TTFS 2020 topics conducted

2. Organization of knowledge on selected TTFS 2020 topics improved

3. Sharing of knowledge and experiences on selected TTFS 2020 topics enhanced

4. Skills and know-how for applying knowledge on selected TTFS 2020 topics in operational work strengthened

A range of activities have been completed in support of the TA outcome. The TA facilitated the successful conduct of the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th Transport Sector Coordinating Committee (TSCC) meetings held annually from 2015 to 2018 respectively. The rolling 3-year Transport Sector Work Plan was developed and endorsed at the CAREC National Focal Points (NFP) meetings in 2015-2017. The TA currently supports the following priority areas: (i) railways; (ii) transport facilitation, (iii) road asset management, (iv) road safety, and (v) aviation. In sum, the TA has so far achieved the following:

- 10 workshops/meetings held, with a total of about 500 participants

- 80% of participants rated the workshops as excellent

- Knowledge exchanged between all 11 countries of CAREC, and beyond

- 5 knowledge products developed, and disseminated to an estimated 1,500 people

The TA supported the development and publication of Unlocking The Potential Of Railways: A Railway Strategy for CAREC, 2017-2030. The Strategy is available at https://www.adb.org/documents/railway-strategy-carec-2017-2030