United Nation Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Transport and Tourism Division

Having convened nine sessions between 1998 and 2004, the Project Working Group on Transport and Border Crossing (PWG-TBC) decided that an evaluation of the activities of the Project Working Group should be done to identify major problem areas and measures to improve its efficiency.

The evaluation was conducted in 2004 through the ESCAP advisory services in close cooperation with the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Kazakhstan, the lead SPECA country in the field of transport.

Major problem areas that were identified in the evaluation include:

1. Road and railway networks of the SPECA region had not been identified/finalized;

2. Major emphasis was put on regional (UNESCAP, UNECE) projects/activities (such as Asian Highway and Trans-Asian railway projects, implementation of the UNESCAP resolution 48/11 etc.) with insufficient attention given to projects/activities of common interest of the SPECA countries;

3. No financial support was available except limited resources of MinTransCom, UNECE, and UNESCAP;

4. Need for technical support to MinTransCom /PWG-TBC to efficient implement adopted Programme of Work of the Group;

5. Late submission of invitations and documents before sessions of the Group;

6. Non-participation of Turkmenistan and insufficient participation of Uzbekistan as well as insufficient participation of negotiating (of SPECA region) countries and international organizations involved.

The evaluation led to the development of the Guidelines to improve the efficiency of PWG-TBC which guided the preparation of all subsequent sessions of the Project Working Group.