Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 14:44:46 +0100
<http://www.madote.com/2014/11/eritreas-statement-to-un-conference-on.html>
Eritrea's Statement to UN Conference on Landlocked and Transit Developing
Countries
Nov 12, 2014 | 11:47 AM
H.E. MR. FESSAHAZION PIETROS
AMBASSADOR OF THE STATE OF ERITREA
TO THE REPUBLIC OF ITALY
AT THE SECOND UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE
ON LANDLOCKED AND TRANSIT DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
3-5 NOVEMBER 2014
VIENNA AUSTRIA
Mr. Chairman, Honourable Heads of State and Government
Your Excellencies Ministers and Heads of Delegation Distinguished Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to join previous speakers to express Eritrea's appreciation for the
convening today of this august Second United Nations Conference of
Landlocked Developing Countries to review progress of the Almaty Programme
of Action in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 6/214 of
December 22nd, 2011.
Let me also avail of the occasion to express our heartfelt gratitude for the
hospitality accorded to us by the people and Government of Austria.
The underlying reasons that prompted the first International Ministerial
Conference of Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries and our
International Partners ten-years ago, culminating in the Almaty Programme of
Action, are too cogent and vivid to merit additional elaboration here.
The original emphasis was perhaps skewed on the trade encumbrances and
infrastructural bottlenecks land locked countries face, with deleterious
implications on their economic growth. But these critical logjams also
affect, almost to the same degree, transit countries since paucity of
finance and investment to develop the requisite infrastructural hardware and
professional capacity to refine the administrative and regulatory software
will ultimately render their services ineffective, and to that extent,
hamper regional/international trade.
In the event, the whole discourse might need to be recast to address the
symbiotic trade and commercial cooperation ties between landlocked and
transit countries in a more holistic and intertwined manner.
In this respect, a regional architecture and protocol of economic
cooperation that transcends limited port transit services to encompass
broader areas of mutual economic cooperation will go a long way to address
both the hardware and software bottlenecks that have been spelled out in the
Report of the UN Secretary General of 25 July, 2011. In many cases, transit
countries are in geographical positions to render port transit services to
several landlocked and/or adjoining countries. The regional framework can
thus create a more convenient platform for synergetic arrangements. Needless
to emphasize, these collective frameworks will not necessarily substitute
but only supplant and standardize the commercial service 3 agreements that
are usually entered between landlocked and transit countries at a bilateral
level.
Indeed, harmonization of transport and transit policies, regulations,
procedures and best practices have higher prospects of effectiveness and
durability when they are charted out in tandem with other objectives and
tasks of all-rounded regional cooperation.
In our region, for instance, the Tripartite COMESA-SADEC-IGAD framework of
consultations on harmonization of transport, energy, information and
communication technologies can offer a convenient platform to streamline,
within the context of broader protocols of cooperation, port transit
administrative procedures, and judicious service tariffs and to simplify
border control operations.
At the infrastructural level, it is clear that transit countries require
substantial capital investment for expansion and modernization of their
ports; for the maintenance and construction of main highways that serve
transit trade as well as efficient telecommunication and power supply
installations. In this regard, provision of soft and concessional loans to
transit countries are essential both for the efficiency of transit services
and trade as well as to render service charges at much reduced, non-rent
seeking, costs.
Finally, the legal framework that governs bilateral transit services and
articulated in operative paragraph 6 of the Almaty declaration, namely, "the
right of transit countries, in the exercise of their full sovereignty over
their territory, to take all measures necessary to ensure that the rights
and facilities provided for landlocked countries in no way infringe upon
their legitimate interests" must be respected fully to preclude potential
disagreements and ensure smooth implementation of the various accords.
I thank you
<http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Un6K4SUe7c/VGO5IOJJ47I/AAAAAAAAHXI/f0uSrgqpr-k/s
1600/Emblem_of_Eritrea_%28or_argent_azur%29.svg.png>
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Un6K4SUe7c/VGO5IOJJ47I/AAAAAAAAHXI/f0uSrgqpr-k/s3
20/Emblem_of_Eritrea_%28or_argent_azur%29.svg.png
(image/png attachment: image001.png)