Economic corridors around the world

3 min read

1. India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) initiative through the Arabian peninsula to connect India to the Gulf and Europe

  • goods shipped from India’s Western coast to the UAE and travel via rail to Saudi Arabia and then possibly through Jordan to Israel.
  • Neither Israel nor Jordan signed the original MoU.
  • port of Haifa in Israel being a part of it, operated by Adani Group.
  • from here goods would be shipped to Europe (Italy, France and Greece) , where Greece — another non-signatory to the corridor — claimed the port of Piraeus to be the gateway to the continent for European goods.
  • the majority stakeholder of the Piraeus port and its operator is a Chinese state-owned company — China COSCO Shipping. 
  • Bharat - Greece will work together on this project

2. The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) in the West -

  • conceptualised in 2000 spans 7200kms connecting India through Iran and Central Asia to Russia.
  • The INSTC was initially intended to send goods from India to Russia through Iran. The first set of goods was transited through it in July 2022 via Iran’s Bander Abbas port.
  • viable solution for sanctioned countries like Iran and Russia.
  • remains incomplete as of 2024

3. The trilateral highway in South East Asia - the India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) trilateral highway.

  • began in 2012, has been a part of the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) programme since 2001.
  • The programme brings together Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka
  • The highway, though believed to be 70 percent complete, has been shadowed by the security situation in Myanmar as well as the neighbouring state of Manipur, which has seen a bloody conflict between ethnic groups.
  • there’s no guarantee that the 160-km road linking the border of Tamu/Moreh to Kalmeya and Kalewa — the first segment of the highway — won’t face “damage”

4. The Chennai-Vladivostok route to the East -

  • holds promise for India’s connectivity with the Russian Far East.

5. Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) - by China in 2013

  • touted as the “project of the century” by Chinese President Xi Jinping — which has seen close to $1 trillion in investments made by Beijing
  • original name ‘One Belt One Road’
  • BRI forum, in 2017 - 29 heads of states with representations from over 130 countries attended
  • India declined the invitation
  • 2023 - 3rd forum - Taliban attended
  • Italy, the only G7 member a part of the BRI, withdrew from the Chinese-led project in 2023 and is a founding signatory of the IMEC
Important

Joe Biden said, while announcing the IMEC at the G20 Summit in Delhi last September, “Economic corridors — you’re going to hear that phrase more than once, I expect, over the next decade.”

6. Build Back Better World (B3W), 2021

  • by G7
  • aimed to bridge the $40 trillion infrastructure gap in the developing world
  • renamed the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) in Hiroshima G7 summit in 2023
  • one of the major project - IMEC — a corridor connecting India to Europe via West Asia and offering an alternative route to the Suez Canal — a known choke point to global trade.
  • Italy, the only G7 member a part of the BRI, withdrew from the Chinese-led project in 2023 and is a founding signatory of the IMEC

7. Iraq Development Road

  • by Turkey in September, 2023
  • goods transferred to the Grand Faw port at the tip of Iraq and then carried by land to Turkey before they reached Europe.
  • UAE and Qatar are keen on such a project.

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