BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 26. The UN Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) says
countries involved in the International North–South Transport
Corridor (INSTC) may need to reassess bottlenecks as the project
has seen significant developments over the past five years.
Azhar Jaimurzina Ducrest, Chief of the Transport Connectivity
and Logistics Section at ESCAP, told Trend in an exclusive interview that the
commission has been supporting INSTC participants through
analytical work and technical consultations. “As part of its
analytical and capacity-building work on transport connectivity,
ESCAP published a study report in 2019 on coordinating and
management arrangements for select multimodal transport corridors
in Asia, where several transport corridors were explored from the
perspective of their coordination and management mechanisms. That
report covered the International North–South Transport Corridor
(INSTC),” she said.
Following requests from participating countries, ESCAP convened
two virtual consultative meetings in 2020 to discuss corridor
operations. “These meetings were held virtually and attended by
Azerbaijan, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian
Federation,” Jaimurzina Ducrest noted.
She highlighted Iran’s active engagement in ESCAP’s broader
transport initiatives. “The Islamic Republic of Iran plays an
active role in ESCAP’s work on transport connectivity under the
auspices of the intergovernmental Agreements on the Trans-Asian
Railways, Asian Highways and Dry Ports,” she said. “Thanks to their
initiative, a new annex to the Intergovernmental Agreement on the
Trans-Asian Railway network was adopted by the Parties to
facilitate an electronic information exchange among railways and
other border agencies, which can be implemented on a corridor
level”.
Looking back at the INSTC-focused consultations, she said:
“ESCAP facilitated two meetings for the INSTC members back in 2020.
At that time, participants flagged particular bottlenecks and other
issues affecting efficient transportation on the INSTC, including
infrastructure missing links”. But she added that the picture may
now have shifted. “However, there have been a lot of developments
in the past five years, so key bottlenecks might be different at
present”.
Digitalization at the center
ESCAP is also intensifying support for digital tools aimed at
reducing delays and improving efficiency across regional transport
corridors, including those involving Iran.
She noted that ESCAP “actively promotes measures facilitating
transport operations and minimizing delays at border-crossings,
increasing efficiency of cross-border transport and customs
procedures”. Today, she said, digitalization has become central to
member states’ priorities. “Measures on digitalization of transport
and transport-related documentation and on mutual recognition of
digital formats are of particularly high interest to our member
states”.
Jaimurzina Ducrest pointed to the new annex on electronic
information exchange added to the Intergovernmental Agreement on
the Trans-Asian Railway network as a good example of ESCAP work in
this area.
ESCAP deepens cooperation with TRACECA, UNECE on
multimodal transport and digital solutions
ESCAP is also deepening cooperation with regional organizations.
“We are strengthening our coordination and collaboration with
relevant partners, including subregional organizations,” she said.
“As the most recent example, we have just had a joint session with
TRACECA on November 13, 2025. The session touched upon the matters
of transport digitalization in TRACECA countries, where overall
progress in this direction was discussed and potential pilot
projects for multimodal transportation with the use of digital
solutions were also considered”.
She added that ESCAP is working closely with other UN bodies as
well: “For the promotion of the implementation of digital
instruments, ESCAP is actively collaborating with UNECE on digital
solutions for the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway
corridor”.
Beyond pilot initiatives, ESCAP members have adopted broader
strategic commitments. “In addition to the new annex on electronic
information exchange added to the Intergovernmental Agreement on
the Trans-Asian Railway network, ESCAP member States adopted a
Strategy 2030 on accelerating rail digital transformation in the
Asia-Pacific region in 2023,” Jaimurzina Ducrest said, noting that
a regional framework on strengthening rail cybersecurity in the
Asia-Pacific region is being finalized.
Operational connectivity and resilience prioritized
along corridors involving Iran
ESCAP sees the greatest immediate need for technical assistance
along transport corridors involving Iran in strengthening
operational connectivity and boosting resilience through digital
tools, Azhar Jaimurzina Ducrest said.
She noted that ESCAP mostly focuses on the promotion of
operational connectivity, and that under current conditions the
topic of promoting resilience of transport infrastructure,
including transport corridors, to increase their protection against
natural hazards, is a high priority. A major element of that
resilience, she said, is the introduction of digitalized solutions
for transport operations and customs clearance procedures.
Jaimurzina Ducrest noted that ESCAP is working on digital tools
that can be applied across the region, including on Iranian routes.
“ESCAP promotes digital solutions that can be useful for all our
member states, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, with due
adaptation to national contexts, such as national legislative and
regulatory frameworks,” she said.
While digitalization is the primary focus, she stressed that
physical infrastructure still requires investment. When planning
the design or upgrade of roads, railways, ports and border
facilities, she said, “consideration should be given to ensuring
its disaster resilience, such as earthquakes. This will increase
the costs and create an additional demand for capital investment,
so in a number of ESCAP studies and events, the matter of exploring
different options for capital investment allocation is being
touched upon”.
ESCAP also works to bring together governments and industry to
address practical challenges. “We organize activities with
involvement of various groups of stakeholders, as platforms for
discussions on practical matters of transport corridor operations.
We work to promote a regional approach that invites representatives
of all countries who are interested in transport corridor
development,” she said.
A recent example was the first regional Forum of Dry Ports
Operators, Logistics and Multimodal Transport Service Providers,
held in March 2025. “We invited governments, transport industry
stakeholders and academia to attend and discuss matters on dry
ports and multimodal transport, exchange information and opinions,”
Jaimurzina Ducrest said. She added that ESCAP received strong
support from the Forum participants to continue offering our role
as the cooperation platform, and hopes to host similar events soon
to attract more transport and logistics industry players into
discussions at its platform.
