Cheick Sidi Diarra, chief of the Office of the UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, also decried the lack of significant improvement in transit transport infrastructure in Africa.
"Despite increased development aid, debt relief and greater access to international markets, the marginalisation of landlocked developing countries in the global economy has not reduced fundamentally," Diarra, who is also a special UN adviser on Africa, told experts meeting here to review the implementation at the regional level of the Almaty Programme of Action on facilitation of access by landlocked countries to the sea.
Africa has 15 landlocked countries in need of collaboration from their neighboring transit countries to overcome the constraints they face in their quest for greater access to the international trading system.
"The peculiar challenge faced by landlocked developing countries due to lack of territorial access to the sea and international waterways... limits their scope for effective participation in international commerce," observed Abdoulie Janneh, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
Addressing the meeting, Janneh said that success of the Almaty Programme would, to a great deal, depend on efforts deployed by landlocked and transit developing countries themselves to improve transit transport infrastructure, provide efficient services and generate required resources.
"In this regard, it has become imperative to deepen regional cooperation, harness the potential offered by public-private partnerships, scale up domestic resources mobilisation and boost investor confidence in the regulatory framework," Janneh added.
Adopted in 2003, the Almaty Programme of Action set out specific action-oriented measures to be undertaken by both landlocked and transit developing countries with the support of their development partners in key areas to improve sea access by landlocked countries.
The outcome of the African regional review meeting will be considered at the global review that is scheduled to take place in October 2008 in New York.
Addis Ababa - 19/06/2008
Pana
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|