Policy Dialogue on Strengthening Transport Connectivity

Esmaeil Tekyehsadat Director Transport and Comunication ECO (Dhaka, Bangladesh, 26-27 June 2013)

ECO-IRU

• The 3rd ECO-IRU Regional Conference on TIR Convention will be held on 8-9 October, 2013 in Tehran. • Participation in the 7th IRU Euro Asian Road Transport Conference, scheduled for 12-13 June 2013 in Amman • Pakistan to expedite specifying the dates and venue of the National TIR Capacity Building Workshop, to be organized jointly by the ECO Secretariat and IRU

Key Study on Transport Connectivity ECO RMT / NELTI-3 • 31 Dec 2011 137 project Questionnaires received from over 30 road transport companies of 7 ECO Member states

• 6 Jan 2012 First interim results based on the data from 40 Questionnaires presented at the 173rd ECO CPR

→ (40 data entries x 4,5 hrs = 180 working hrs; 3 officers) • End Jan 2012 Data Analysis by NEA begins Page 3 (c) International Road Transport Union (IRU) 2012 • 1st Quarter 2012 ECO/IRU Report and recommendations for National Action Plans of the ECO Member States

– CPMM Methods

Pushing controls away from the border

Time Structure

Waiting/time Loading/discharge 6% in queue Procedures 23% 465,7 hrs (inc. escort & 1 641,5 hrs repairs) 37 % 2 610,8 hrs 2 406 hrs

Total time: 7 124 hrs

Average speed =14,5 km/hrs

Page 6 (c) International Road Transport Union (IRU) 2012 Cost Structure

28,3%

Page 7 (c) International Road Transport Union (IRU) 2012 ECO facilities for border crossing operation

• Uniform Transit Visa Sticker (developed by the Islamic Republic of Iran and under consideration of Member states) • Uniform Transit Insurance ( developed white Card same as green Card in EU and waiting for member states reports and consolidated report and finally implementation

02/08/2013 8 ECO facilities for border crossing operation (Count's) • Unified Transit Tariff( develop based upon ECO initiation transit corridors) • Unified Transit Custom System (developed based upon IRU and UNCTAD experience) • Unified Intelligent Transport System (Included in the Agenda of the Head of ECO Telecommunication , 2011)

02/08/2013 9 Further work for operational objectives to become ECO Transit – Trade Hub

1. To make Secure Supply Chain 2. Reducing logistics Cost (Cost Efficiency) , increase business responsiveness, reliability and security) 3. Create Value added in Logistic and related business 4. Developing combined logistic centers and supply chain ECO RMT monitored routes as of 31.12.2011

Page 11 (c) International Road Transport Union (IRU) 2012 Key Road Corridors connectivity

• Following the successful launch of the ECO Demonstration Truck Caravan in 2010, the 8th Ministerial Meeting on Transport and Communication (28-29 June 2011, Ashgabat) decided to establish two road transport corridors, one between Islamabad- Tehran-Istanbul, and the other between Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic. • Two meetings of the HLWG meetings have been held to discuss technical matters pertaining to operationalizations of the ITI Road Corridor. Application of the TIR Convention on the test basis has been agreed as the mutually agreed transit system to develop the ITI Corridor. ITI Road Corridor

• expedite implementing the Action Plan of ITI Road Corridor agreed in Islamabad, and the Joint Statement of ITI Road Corridor signed among the Customs Administration of enroute countries on the occasion of 6th International Forum on the Role of Custom Administrations on Facilitating and Promoting trade among the Silk Road Countries (Istanbul, 29-30 October 2012).

KTAI Road Corridor

• Kyrgyz-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iran Road Transport (KTAI) Corridor to expedite implementing the Action Plan signed during the 1st HLWG Meeting of the enroute countries (Herat, 2012). White Card

• It asked the Secretariat to continue organizing such training courses and regional and national capacity building workshops on the White Card. • Appreciating the Secretariat for preparing a comprehensive report on the White Card • establishing the Financial Guarantees for the White Card Scheme as envisaged in Annex II of the Scheme • carrying out the activities specified in the Action Plan for implementation of the White Card along this corridor  Afghanistan has borders with six countries, of which four are already TIR Contracting Parties.  The two others are TIR Candidates.

Candidate

Candidate

Page 17 TIR System in Afghanistan/Pakistan • the TIR system is expected to be reactivated in Afghanistan at the end of 2013.

ADR

• workshop on ADR, Modernization of Border Crossing Points and digital tachograph system, will be held in Ankara in November 2013. Expert Group on Unified Rail Law

Key Railway connectivity • Implementation of the infrastructure project “Kerman – Bam – Zahidan Railway” with the length of 540 km enabled to connect Pakistan Railway network to that of Turkey and onward to Europe and Central Asia through railway network of the Islamic Republic of Iran. • In order to utilize Kerman – Bam – Zahidan route a demonstration run of the ECO Container Train on Islamabad-Tehran- Istanbul route has been organized in August 2009 from Islamabad. Since 2010 the ITI Container Train has started running in both directions. Bandar Abbas-Almaty Istanbul-Almaty • ECO Container Train on Bandar Abbas- Almaty route to expedite the efforts for cargo mobilization to start regular operation of the said train • to remove the existing obstacles to regular operation of the ECO Container Train on Istanbul-Almaty route

Qazvin-Rasht-Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) Railway • 80% progress in substructure construction on Qazvin-Rasht segment of the Qazvin- Rasht-Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) Railway has been achieved and the detail design of Rasht-Astara has already been concluded

COTIF

• The ECO Meeting noted with satisfaction that the accession of Azerbaijan and Pakistan to the COTIF is at final stages.

Rail/ road networking

• expedite preparing the draft TOR for the "Regional Partnership Forum for Implementation of the ECO Railway Network Development Plan”

• the draft ECO Road Network Development Plan has also been circulated in February 2013. • effective implementation and monitoring of the ECO Railway Network Development Plan and the ECO Road Network Development Plan logistic centre

• layout and other necessary information on the logistic centre planned for construction at the Iran-Pakistan border ECO and the UIC

• activities envisaged in the Action Plan signed between the ECO and the UIC in June 2012 UNECE

• Actively participation in the ECO Contact Group and the sessions of the UNECE WP.30 and AC.2 in Geneva. ECOLPAF

• the 20th COM (Baku, October 2012) approved the establishment of the ECO Logistics Providers Associations Federation (ECOLPAF) as an affiliated body of ECO and its Charter. ECO Zone

• Iran to expedite providing the Action Plan for activating the ECO zone in Chabahar. It also requested the landlocked Member States to expedite conveying their specific needs and proposals for utilizing the facilities of the ECO Zone ICT infrastructure connectivity

• High Level Working Group of ICT Communication Regulatory Authorities • Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on ECO ICT Security and Cyber Crime • establishment of ECO ICT Providers Association of the private Sector in October 2013 • availability of fiber optics connectivity with neighboring ECO Member States except Pakistan. • The Islamic Republic of Iran, in accordance with the decision of the 1st ICT Ministerial Meeting, have installed a STM64 fibre optic line on the Mirjaveh border point with Pakistan and requested the latter to connect their network to the said line. ICT connectivity (Cont,d)

• Iran has fibre optic connectivity with all ECO Member States, except Pakistan • Currently, Iran has installed a STM64 fiber optic line on the Mirjaveh border point with Pakistan which would enable to connect Pakistan to this network ECO-IDB/UNEESCAP and ECO/IDB-UNECE • inter-agency meetings in the context of the trilateral MoUs among ECO- IDB/UNEESCAP and ECO/IDB-UNECE would be organized in the 2nd half of 2013 Thanks Esmaeil Tekyeh Sadat Director of Transport & Communication PhD (Organization Development) Web: www.ECOsecretariat.org Email: [email protected] 1 Golbou Alley, Kamranieh, Tehran, IR.Iran Telefax:(+9821) 2613 1409 Tel: (+9821) 2283 1733-4 Fax: (+9821) 2283 1732