Landlocked developing countries
It mainly holds the view that high transport costs due to distance and terrain result in the erosion of competitive edge for exports from landlocked countries.
[12] In fact, HDI levels decrease as one moves inland along the major transit route that runs from the coast of Kenya, across the country before going through Uganda, Rwanda and then finally Burundi.
[9] Thus, Burundi had to export its goods using a 4500 km route, crossing several borders and changing transport modes, to reach the port of Durban in South Africa.
[16] The mineral resource-rich countries of Central Asia and Mongolia offer a unique set of landlocked cases to explore in more depth, as these are nations where economic growth has grown exceptionally in recent years.
[14] In Central Asia, oil and coal deposits have influenced development: Kazakhstan’s GDI per capita in purchasing power parity was five times greater than Kyrgyzstan's in 2009.
[14] Despite substantial development growth, these nations are not on a stable and destined path to being well developed, as the exploitation of their natural resources translates into an overall low average income and disparity of income, and because their limited deposits of resources allow growth only in the short term, and most importantly because dependence on unprocessed materials increases the risk of shocks due to variations in market prices.
[18] And though it is widely conceived that free trade can permit faster economic growth,[19] Mongolia is now subjected to a new geopolitical game which concerns the traffic on its railway lines between China and Russia.
[18] Yet it cannot be ignored that Mongolia benefits exceptionally from its proximity to two giant BRIC nations, resulting in a rapid development of railway ports along its borders, especially along the Chinese border, as the Chinese seek to direct coking coal from Mongolia to China's northwestern industrial core, and, as well as for transportation southeast towards Japan and South Korea, resulting in revenue generation through the seaport of Tianjin.
[25] Because of these problems, and Nepal's inability to develop its own infant industries (as it could not compete with Indian manufactures)[26] treaties were drafted in 1960 and 1971, with amendments to the equal tariffs conditions, and terms of trade have since progressed.
[27] In August, 2003, the International Ministerial Conference of Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries and Donor Countries on Transit Transport Cooperation (Almaty Ministerial Conference) was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, setting the necessities of LLDCs in a universal document whereas there were no coordinated efforts on the global scale to serve the unique needs of LLDCs in the past.
