SUMMARY
Of the 30 landlocked developing countries worldwide, 15 are in Africa (with 12 of them also least developed countries (LDCs), another 5 are in South and East Asia (4 of them LDCs), a further 8 are in Central Asia and Eastern Europe: and the remaining 2 are in Latin America (see table 2B)1 . In addition to the landlocked developing countries, this report will focus on a further selected 34 countries worldwide: they are the principal coastal transit countries serving the developing landlocked countries by providing land transit corridors to ports, giving them access to the sea and to world markets. Sixteen of these transit countries are in Africa (9 being LDCs), another 7 are in South and East Asia (1 is an LDC), a further 7 are in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, and the remaining 4 are in Latin America. The focus here on both landlocked countries and their transit neighbours is important for the two main objectives of this report: (a) to examine the extent of external financial support for the main transit corridors serving landlocked countries, which by their very geographical nature lie mainly in the territory of transit neighbours; and (b) to provide an analysis of the overall size of the transport cost burden on imports facing landlocked countries in comparison with their own coastal transit neighbours. In both of these exercises it is important to keep in mind the basic fact that most of these landlocked countries already provide transit transport services to their own neighbours, both landlocked and coastal countries, and that the potential for even greater transit flows of this sort in the future may in many cases be considerable. [English only]
