Many landlocked countries remain among the world's poorest nations, despite huge political, economic and technological gains over the last two centuries. Their lack of access to coast and sea ports burden them with higher trade costs, constraining their socio-economic development prospects. This paper examines the trade performance of Asian land-locked developing countries (LLDCs), including their export performance and export diversification, and attempts to identify factors affecting their performance, such as cost of trade and trade facilitation measures, which inhibit their integration into global and regional economies. Among LLDCs in South Asia, Bhutan incurs some of the highest trade costs and Nepal faces high cost in transport services. The paper finds persistent challenges to the growth of Asian LLDCs--trade barriers and trade restrictions, lack of infrastructure and poor trade facilitation performance-- and recommends reforms that could mitigate these continuing economic challenges.

Author: Witada Anukoonwattaka and Aman Saggu

Year: 2016

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Tags: Landlocked Developing Countries, Exports, Trade, UNESCAP