CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1

PART ONE:   THE CHALLENGE FOR TRANSPORT

13

I.

MEETING THE NEEDS OF TRADE

15

A.

Economic growth in the world

15

B.

Economic growth in the ESCAP region

17

C.

Intraregional and interregional trends in merchandise trade

18

II.

MEETING THE NEED FOR PERSONAL MOBILITY

25

A.

World and regional population growth and distribution

25

B.

Trends in urbanization

27

C.

Demographic change

30

III.

MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE ENVIRONMENT

33

A.

Greenhouse gas emissions due to transport

33

B.

Local air pollution due to transport

34

C.

Initiatives to reduce air pollution and GHG emissions from transport

36

IV.

MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE POOR

41

A.

Transport and poverty reduction

41

B.

Rural poverty and transport

42

C.

Urban poverty and transport

43

D.

Infrastructure and “inclusive development”

44

PART TWO:   DEVELOPMENTS IN INFRASTRUCTURE

45

V.

CHANGING DELIVERY MECHANISMS

47

A.

Private sector financing of transport infrastructure

47

B.

Developing institutions to facilitate private sector investment

55

VI.

ROADS AND ROAD TRANSPORT

63

A.

Introduction

63

B.

Asian Highway project

63

C.

Growth and development of the region’s road infrastructure

66

D.

Growth in road vehicle fleets and motorization trends in the region

67

E.

Selected road and highway investment projects

70

VII.

RAILWAY TRANSPORT

75

A.

Railway traffic trends

75

B.

Rail systems growth

78

C.

Network development

84

VIII.

SHIPPING

89

A.

Registered fleet capacities

89

B.

Vessels by country of domicile

91

C.

Shipbuilding

91

D.

Trends in container slot capacity and ship size

92

E.

Trends in bulk shipping fleet capacities

94

F.

Trends in the average age of merchant fleets

94

G.

Productivity trends in the world merchant shipping fleet

95

H.

Supply-side developments in world container shipping

96

IX.

PORTS

99

A.

Trends in container port throughput

99

B.

Selected port infrastructure projects

102

X.

AIR TRANSPORT

109

A.

Air traffic growth trends and forecasts

109

B.

Investment in air transport infrastructure and aircraft fleets

113

C.

Institutional developments in air transport

115

D.

Technological developments affecting air transport

116

XI.

URBAN TRANSPORT

121

A.

Introduction

121

B.

Growing motorization

121

C.

Public transport initiatives

123

D.

Para-transit

127

E.

Non-motorized transport

128

F.

Case Studies: transportation in Beijing, Colombo and Kuala Lumpur

128

PART THREE:  GLOBALIZATION, REGIONALISM AND INTERMODAL SYSTEMS

133

XII.

GLOBALIZATION, TRADE AGREEMENTS AND TRANSPORT

135

A.

Background

135

B.

WTO, GATS and Asian Trade Agreements

135

C.

Spreading the benefits of globalization through transport infrastructure development

141

XIII.

REGIONAL COOPERATION AGREEMENTS

143

A.

General trends

143

B.

Examples of regional cooperation agreements

147

XIV.

COLLOCATION OF PRODUCTION TRANSPORT FACILITIES

155

A.

Recent international developments

155

B.

Logistics centres and distriparks in the ESCAP region

156

C.

Free Trade Zones

158

XV.

INTERMODAL SYSTEMS

161

A.

What is an ‘Intermodal System’

161

B.

General benefits associated with intermodal systems

162

C.

Itermodal infrastructure in the ESCAP region

162

D.

Constraints to the development of intermodal system

166

ANNEX:    STATISTICAL NOTES

169

A.

Aggregation

169

B.

Growth rates

170