Mr. President of the Republic of Kazakhstan,
Ministers,
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is an honour and a
pleasure for me to attend this important
Conference of Landlocked and Transit Developing
Countries and Donor Communities on Transit
Transport Cooperation. Let me take this
opportunity to express my sincere gratitude
to Mr. Anwarul Chowdhury, High Representative
for the Least Developing Countries, Landlocked
Developing Countries and Small Island
Developing States for the invitation to
attend this Conference and to the government
of Kazakhstan for hosting this meeting
here in Almaty.
The Millennium Declaration
called on both bilateral and multilateral
donors to increase financial and technical
assistance to landlocked developing countries
to meet their special development needs
and to help them improve their transit
transport systems. This Conference is
a unique opportunity for all of us to
review the special needs of this group
of countries and to reflect on how best
can we contribute to meet them. The Almaty
Programme of Action that the Conference
is expected to adopt addresses the key
issues, including transit policy issues,
infrastructure development and maintenance
as well as trade and trade facilitation
issues.
Let me briefly indicate
how the UNECE contributes to the objectives
of the Conference. The UNECE, together
with ESCAP, is contributing to the Special
Programme for the Economies of Central
Asia (SPECA), which concerns landlocked
and transit developing countries. Under
the leadership of Kazakhstan, SPECA is
addressing the main infrastructure and
border crossing problems of this region.
We are also starting
the implementation, jointly with the other
UN Regional Commissions, of a Development
Account Project on Capacity Building for
the development of Interregional Transport
Linkages. This project also affects landlocked
and transit developing countries, including
those of this region.
Furthermore, the UNECE
has a long-standing experience and expertise
in promoting cooperation of its member
countries, 19 of which are landlocked
countries, in order to facilitate international
transport among them. The results of such
cooperation are reflected in a set of
international agreements, conventions,
resolutions and recommendations on transport,
which establish coherent infrastructure
networks, simplify border crossings and
provide for international widely accepted
safety and environmental standards for
transport. The implementation of these
international instruments by UNECE member
countries has significantly contributed
to develop international trade and transport
in the UNECE region and, thereby, to foster
development and integration of European
countries, including countries with economies
in transition.
Some of these instruments
and recommendations, such as the TIR Convention,
are of particular interest for landlocked
and transit developing countries as well
as for transition countries.
Since the 1960s, the
UNECE has also developed and maintains
a wide range of trade facilitation instruments
to promote and implement simpler trade
procedures which benefit government administrations,
providers of trade-related services and
the business sector across the world,
of special relevance to landlocked countries.
The work on trade facilitation focuses
on removing procedural barriers to trade
through the elimination of cumbersome
procedures to subsequently simplify, harmonize
and standardize remaining procedures and
data. The results of this work are embedded
in our Recommendations for best practices
in trade procedures and standards for
trade-related transactions.
I believe that the implementation
of these UNECE legal instruments and recommendations
by landlocked and transit developing countries
would go a long way in solving the problems
of these countries. The UNECE could, within
its limited resources, provide landlocked
and transit developing countries with
policy advice and recommendations on the
implementation of these instruments, as
we have done in the past in collaboration
with ESCAP and other United Nations Regional
Commissions.
Mr. President, Ladies
and Gentlemen,
The UNECE recognizes
the special development needs and problems
of landlocked and transit developing countries
and is ready to consider ways and means
along the lines indicated earlier to increase
its contribution to the solution of those
problems.
I wish the greatest
success to this Conference and thank you
for your attention.
__________