Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/238625 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
ADBI Working Paper Series No. 1268
Publisher: 
Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Tokyo
Abstract: 
The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), known as the Middle Corridor, is a multilateral institutional development linking the containerized rail freight transport networks of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the European Union through the economies of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Turkey, and Eastern Europe. The multilateral, multimodal transport institution links Caspian and Black Sea ferry terminals with rail systems in the PRC, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Poland. Trans-Eurasian and intra-Eurasian rail freight development remains fundamentally policy- and subsidy-driven on the PRC side, yet dependent on European Union demand-side drivers to create traffic flow volumes. The development of the Middle Corridor, though, is institutionally independent and potentially transformative for the economies of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Turkey. We explore the institutional development of transport infrastructure and economic potential from three macroregional angles: policy- and subsidy-driven development, the Central Asia - Caucasus - Turkey physical industrial geography and political institution limitations, and lack of demand-side fundamentals from European Union market agents. The PRC's supply-side-policy evidence suggests that growth in transcontinental containerized rail transport is politically feasible. However, demand-side factors suggest that trade development potential is largely limited to greater extraregional connectivity from the Middle Corridor economies with little economic rationale for increased PRC - Europe transcontinental freight flows.
Subjects: 
transport policy
economic geography
geoindustrial policy
industrial policy
Eurasian economic integration
JEL: 
B15
B27
B52
E02
E61
F1
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.