Juliette was a speaker and moderator at the 2016 Global Partnership for Sustainable Transport (GPST) Progress Update Meeting, held on April 19, 2016 at the Harvard Club of New York. The GPST is a business-and industry-led, action-oriented, multi-stakeholder initiative involving all modes of transport.

1. Global Partnership
for Sustainable Transport
Progress Update Meeting
April 19, 2016
Harvard Club of New York City
Global Silk Routes Initiative
By Juliette Passer, Esq.

2. There are the words of Victor Hugo, which
read:
“... The day shall come, when there will be
no
battlefields other than markets opening up
to
trade, and minds opening up to ideas...”

3. Sustainable Development for All Transport Modes
Modernization
Coordination
Transparency
Internetization
Standardization
Harmonization
Simplification
©Juliette Passer for Eurasia Transit Advisory Group, 2016
1. The reduction, simplification and standardization of data
and documentation required by customs and other agencies;
2. The creation of an environment that allows for systematic
dialogue between government and the business community;
3. The coordination and cooperation between customs and
other control agencies, with the view to achieve a “single
window”;
4. The harmonization of regulations of border agencies;
5. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are
important tools for promoting trade facilitation by
enhancing transparency, ensuring consistency and
supporting simplification;
6. Use of risk management and authorized trader schemes
(AEO) by customs and other agencies at the border; and
7. Establishment of transit corridors, which is a route between
two or more countries that have agreed to apply facilitated
procedures.

4. Transportation Policy Interfaces
Land,
Maritime or
Air
Urban or
Rural
Transport
Policies
Private or
Public
©Juliette Passer for Eurasia Transit Advisory Group, 2016
The relationship between transport systems and
human societies is multi-faceted; the interfaces
occur at various geographical, institutional, and
socio-economic levels with vastly different
priorities for developing, landlocked and
developed nations.
Defining a sustainability perspective on transport
is therefore quite challenging, so numerous are
the angles from which it can be approached.

5. Global Silk Routes Initiative
Actions Areas
Infrastructure
Development
&
Financing
Best Practices
©Juliette Passer for Eurasia Transit Advisory Group, 2016
(i) removal of impediments to globalization of
trade along the Silk Routes, including
facilitation of efficiency in border crossings
and implementation of relevant UN
conventions, such as the Harmonization
Convention and the TIR Convention;
(i) development of best practices for
investments in transport infrastructure,
including ancillary infrastructure and
public-private partnerships; and
(i) exchange of information on best practices
between private and public players across
all modes of transport and relevant
countries along the Silk Routes necessary
for trade facilitation.

6. Land transport and transit are of great concern to LLDCs
There are 32 LLDCs, 16 are located in Africa, 10 in Asia, 4 in
Europe and 2 in Latin America.
Only 9 LLDCs have over 50 per cent of their roads paved. The
average distance to the nearest seaport for LLDCs is 1,370 kms.
Due to often long transit times and high transport costs the
share of LLDCs in world trade in goods continues to stagnate at
around 1 per cent.

7. Transit Corridors
Intergovernmental Agreement of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member
States on the Facilitation of International
Road Transport (SCO Agreement).
The SCO Agreement opens more than 15,000 km of the Asian
Highway routes for transport operation and services, with the
longest route stretching more than 9,000 km from Saint
Petersburg, Russia to Lianyungang, China. The SCO Agreement
will also facilitate landlocked Central Asia’s access to sea by road
through China and the Russian Federation.

9. China's One Belt, One Road initiative
Photo: Reuters

10. The Chinese Government identified five
major objectives for the belt:
1B1R - I Policy coordination - expanding economic
collaboration;
1B1R - II Facilities connectivity - improving rail, road
and fiber-optic connectivity;
1B1R - III Unimpeded Trade - promoting trade and
investment;
1B1R - IV Financial integration - facilitating currency
conversion, bond markets, cross-border
transactions and multilateral financial
cooperation; and
1B1R - V People-to-People Bond - boosting cultural,
educational and personal cooperation and
exchanges.

11. Other Action Areas
TRADE FACILITATION TOOLS FOR MARITIME
TRANSPORTATION SECTOR.
FACILITATING EURASIAN TRANSPORT LINKAGES BY
ESTABLISHING REGIONAL FREIGHT EXCHANGES.
PROMOTING REGIONAL CONNECTIVITY WIT
DIGITAL NAVIGATION ROAD AND ROAD
INFRASTRUCTURE MAPS.

12. FACILITATING DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE
ANCILLARY ROAD TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE.
BUILDING HUMAN AND INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY -
SCHOOL OF TRANSPORT DIPLOMACY
ACCESSING MARKET OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE
RISING TIDE OF E-COMMERCE TRAFFIC.

13. Stakeholders of the
Global Partnership
for Sustainable Transport
NGOs GPST
&
Civil Societies
Governments:
Local &
National
Private Sector:
All Transport
Modes
©Juliette Passer for Eurasia Transit Advisory Group, 2016
The overall objective of the
GPST is to provide an
international framework
for multilateral dialogue on
policy options and possible
measures to enhance
sustainable transport
systems globally.

14. What is needed is an open exchange of information and an
ongoing cooperative dialogue among all stakeholders,
which is want the new Global Silk Routes Initiative
offers for today’s complex and diverse global market.
Thank you
© Eurasia Transit Advisory Group, 2016