UN meeting seeks solutions for poor landlocked countries

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The front of a commercial truck is seen at the central customs inspection agency in Bamako, Mali September 19, 2012. REUTERS/Joe Penney

LONDON, Nov 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Some of the world's poorest nations are landlocked countries, but barriers to the sea don't have to be barriers to trade, the U.N.'s envoy for landlocked countries said on Monday.

Global heads of business and government ministers gathered in Vienna for a U.N. conference to look for solutions to the economic challenges faced by developing landlocked countries.

U.N. Under-Secretary General Gyan Chandra Acharya said while "landlockedness has its inherent challenges" the key to development and economic prosperity was strong regional co-operation and investment.

Countries "shouldn't be thinking about the barriers but should be working together through regional co-operation" to focus on the benefits of being a "land-linked country", Acharya said in a phone interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Vienna.

Out of the 32 developing landlocked countries 16, including Ethiopia, Central African Republic and Uganda are in Africa, with the rest spread throughout Latin America, Asia and Europe.

Acharya said landlocked nations on average traded 40 percent less trade than other countries as the costs of overland transport can be substantially higher than shipping.

Shoreless states often face the burden of dependence on their regional neighbours for trade and transport, which makes them vulnerable in times of natural disasters or regional conflict.

While many landlocked states are under-developed and struggling with poverty, there are success stories such as Austria, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic which indicate that regional co-operation and barrier-free trade are essential.

Nine landlocked nations are in the bottom 15 of the Human Development Index. There are hopes that the conference will push development issues of landlocked states onto the agenda for the post 2015 millennium development goals planning.

(Reporting By Karrie Kehoe; Editing by Ros Russell)