An Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) High Level Expert Group on the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (ITI) transport corridor met yesterday virtually.
Bringing together public and private sectors from Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, the meeting included senior figures from ministries of transport, customs authorities and national TIR associations, as well as IRU, to discuss recent TIR operations along this road corridor, which has emerged as a viable alternative to maritime freight.
Participants discussed results from these TIR operations, highlighting time and cost savings of 80% and 15% respectively in comparison to traditional maritime routes.
The meeting looked at further potential improvements to how the corridor functions, including border crossing procedures, establishing TIR-EPD (electronic pre-declaration) Green Lanes, border management coordination, further digitalisation of TIR processes and extending TIR to intermodal transport options along the corridor including road-rail.
With success so far clearly noted as being a result of the strong public-private partnership, participants showed their commitment and political will to continue working on improving the ITI corridor and to develop a detailed action plan in due course.