The importance of dry ports as a means of integrating regional transport networks has long been recognized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) member countries.
As requested by the Commission in May 2010, ESCAP is working towards developing an intergovernmental agreement on dry ports. It is anticipated that the agreement will promote the development of dry ports (dry terminals) in hinterland areas including the 12 landlocked developing countries in Asia and provide new opportunities for international trade.
Dry ports, in addition to providing functions similar to those of sea ports, can also effectively promote economic and social development in the surrounding areas including employment and income generation. Therefore, there is a continuing need to place dry ports high on interregional, regional, subregional and national agendas as well as to enhance coordination at all levels for promotion and development of dry ports.
A dry port provides services for the handling and temporary storage of containers, general and/or bulk cargoes that enter or leave the dry port by any mode of transport such as road, railways, inland waterways or airports. Full customs-related services and other related services such as essential inspections for cargo export and import, whenever possible, should be put in place in a dry port.
Facilitating transport
In order to integrate regional transport networks in Asia, all transport links (including railway, road and waterway) and transport nodes (including seaports, dry ports and intermodal interfaces) need to be fully developed, said the experts in the area reunited in November 2010 in Bangkok during a seminar dedicated to the development of dry ports along the Trans-Asian Railway Network (TAR). Among the top 30 container ports in the world, 19 are located in Asia.
Uzbekistan is in the top of the Asian countries that acknowledged the importance of developing dry ports and the terminals in Navoi, Angren (Tashkent region) and the Logistics International Centre are in full process of modernisation and the facilities that these dry ports provide to trade and international railway transport such as the “Afghanistan – Central Asia – Europe” route are in the immediate proximity of Navoi airport.
Currently construction of railway passing-track, connecting the city with the following railway trunks are being carried out in the north-west direction – Uchkuduk – Nukus – Volgograd, in the east direction – Samarqand – Tashkent – Dustik and in the south direction – Bukhara – Turkmenistan – Bandar-Abbas with the further exit to the Middle East countries and the Persian Gulf.
Another international logistics centre was opened in mid-January in the Uzbek city of Angren (Tashkent region). The centre is located at the Ablyk railway station to receive and process all cargo, and then deliver it to the Andijan, Namangan and Ferghana regions of eastern Uzbekistan. Transportation volume is expected to increase by 50% in 2011. Incentives will help increase the cargo traffic through a new logistics centre. For example, Uzbekiston Temir Yullari (Uzbekistan Railways) has cut in half the tariff on cargo delivery from any part of Uzbekistan to the Ablyk station. Development of a network of dry ports can greatly help to streamline the transport process. Provisions for customs and other inspections are also often available in dry ports which can greatly facilitate international trade and enable the local shippers, manufactures and residents to have access to international market. Dry ports, strategically located where networks of different modes converge, also allow goods, particularly those in standard containers, to be transferred efficiently between transport modes, thereby ensuring optimal usage of the networks as a whole.
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