Central Asia: Logistic Issues of Opening up the Case of Gwadar Port and Logistics Corridor

Abstract

Whatever you are in South America, Africa or Central Asia, landlocked economies are dramatically impacted by the highest transportation & logistics costs. From raw material to high value products in containers, landlocked countries remain strategically dependent on networks and services to import and export cargo up to their landlocked consumers. Transit policy, regulatory framework, trade facilitation, inland infrastructure and multimodal services are amongst the key factors to combine in order to encourage smoothness and efficient logistics systems. The paper proposes to analyze how Central Asia becomes one of the most prominent markets, appealing Europe, Chinese and even US interests in order to guarantee better integration into global value chain networks. Logistics, geopolitics and strategy are deployed by the big players like Russia, India, China or Pakistan to promote some new corridors as shown with the initiative at Gwadar in Baluchistan. The paper concludes on challenges in stake, bearing in mind regional geopolitical instability which includes a large part of the Central Asia Countries.