Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Meeting on Best Practices in Corridor Development and Management for the Benefit of LLDCs and Transit Countries kicked off on October 29. At the two day international meeting being organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia and the United Nations under the auspices of the President of Mongolia, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs B.Battsetseg, UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu and UN Resident Coordinator Tapan Mishra gave opening remarks and Foreign Policy Advisor to the President T.Tegshjargal delivered the President’s message.

Stressing that transit countries are paying more attention to solutions to the concrete problems faced by LLDCs, the Mongolian President mentioned in his message, that Mongolia has established agreements with its neighboring countries on carrying out transit transport and international road transport using road networks and is working on major infrastructure projects under the Mongolia-Russia-China Economic Corridor Establishment Program.

In her remarks, Deputy Minister B.Battsetseg noted that Mongolia is prioritizing implementation of the Mongolia-Russia-China Economic Corridor Establishment Program and paying special attention to infrastructure development solutions for lower product cost and better competitiveness. She also informed that the country has launched an initiative to set up a group of LLDCs within the World trade Organization (WTO) and proposed analyzing the implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action and WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation in landlocked developing and transit countries.

Highlighting that the 32 LLDCs represent only one percent of the total global exports and this percentage is decreasing even though their population makes up seven percent of the world’s population and occupy 22 percent of the world’s territory, Ms. Fekitamoeloa ʻUtoikamanu pointed out the common problem faced by LLDCs is their dependence on transit transport due to their disconnection from the main transport network.

The international meeting serves the main purposes of assessing the current state of economic corridors, sharing best practices and models regarding the issues to landlocked developing and transit countries, discussing the management of economic corridors, and making recommendations on the issues to be addressed in the future.

During the meeting, delegates will also talk about the role of economic corridor in LLDCs trade, giving the countries access to the global market, practices and trends in Eurasia, Africa, and Latin America, creating legal framework for economic corridor development, defining good practices, raising funds, and carrying out bank-financed infrastructure projects.