USIA - Cross-Border Transport a Key to Balkan Development, 97-03-25
From: The United States Information Agency (USIA) Gopher at <gopher://gopher.usia.gov>
CROSS-BORDER TRANSPORT A KEY TO BALKAN DEVELOPMENT
(SECI members meet, expect results within a year) (860)
By Wendy Lubetkin
USIA European Correspondent
Geneva -- Member states of the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative
(SECI) have gotten "down to business" and are at work on a
plan to facilitate the movement of goods and people across borders
throughout the region, according to a top U.S. official.
Ambassador Richard Schifter, special assistant to President Clinton and
counselor on the National Security Council, said eliminating bottlenecks at
the borders is a key to economic development and attracting foreign
investment in the region.
"The first thing everyone mentions when talking about the handicaps of
doing business in the Balkans is the difficulty of getting around,"
Schifter said March 25.
The obstacles to transport in the region include the lack of standardization
in customs forms, long delays at single-lane customs crossings, improperly
trained or poorly motivated customs personnel, and the extortion of
bribes.
Faced with these problems, potential investors are taking their business
elsewhere, Schifter said. Eliminating the bottlenecks could bring
"substantial returns" in development and investment in the region.
The SECI initiative, launched last December in Geneva, is a forum for the
discussion and joint implementation of programs to improve economic and
environmental conditions in south eastern Europe. Participating nations are
Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
Hungary, Greece, Moldova, Romania, and Turkey. Although Croatia and
Slovenia have not yet formally signed SECI's Statement of Purpose, they are
participating actively in the meetings, Schifter said.
Serbia was among the 12 nations originally invited to attend, but its
invitation was withdrawn after Belgrade annulled municipal election
results. The invitation to Serbia will be reissued once Belgrade implements
the recommendations of the "Gonzalez Report" prepared for the OSCE
(Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) by
former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, Schifter said.
Schifter, who was appointed by President Clinton to act as special advisor
to SECI, spoke at a press briefing one day after SECI's Agenda Committee
held its second meeting in Geneva.
SECI currently has an operational budget of $400,000. Funds for projects
must be financed through loans or private investment.
"We start with the proposition that the economic needs of the region are
such that if we merely look to the taxpayers of the wealthier countries to
pipe in money, we are never going to solve the problem. The gap is going to
be too great," Schifter said.
"The only way in which these countries have a chance of really progressing
is by ultimately making themselves far more attractive to private
investment than they are now."
Asked whether the U.S. was simply trying to pave the way for U.S. business,
Schifter said the primary interest of the U.S. is to promote stability in
the region, but he also noted that "stability depends on economic
development."
The idea for SECI began to emerge as the United States made the difficult
decision to commit troops in Bosnia. "It was clear that if we tried to deal
with Bosnia alone that wasn't going to provide stability ... so we began
thinking, let's see what we can do for the region, so that the region as a
whole becomes more stable."
Schifter said SECI members have chosen to focus on six topics, four of them
economic and two of them environmental. Working groups have been formed to
work on:
- Facilitating transport across borders,
- Elimination of other transportation bottlenecks,
- Coordination of the placement of natural gas pipelines in the region,
- Loans for small and medium enterprises,
- Energy conservation, and
- Danube River restoration.
Transportation related problems are clearly a key issue for those who are
concerned with boosting economic growth in the region, Schifter said, and
the working group on border crossings has already held its first meeting.
The Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the U.N. body promoting economic
cooperation in Europe and North America, says it will rely on its network
of transportation experts to provide SECI with a more detailed analysis of
the location and type of bottleneck problems. The ECE's initial report is
expected within a month.
SECI will focus first on the retraining of customs personnel and other
efficiency problems at the borders, such as the lack of standardization in
forms and procedures. In these areas, which are a matter of political will,
Schifter said he hopes the difference at the borders will be apparent
within a year. "And within three years, I would hope that it would have a
really significant impact on the region," he said.
A later project might be to widen some 50 border crossings from one or two
toll bridges to eight or ten.
"When you get to the border, in many places, there are delays simply as a
result of the fact that there are not sufficient lanes to process all the
traffic simultaneously," he noted. The cost to widen each crossing would be
approximately $200,000.
"Multiplied you are talking about $10 million -- something which perhaps a
lending institution such as the World Bank might be prepared to take a look
at," Schifter said.
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