Being landlocked adds four days to land distribution of exports and nine days to imports compared with equivalent distances within the seaport country. Even more problematic is the high variability of transit time. As a result, landlocked developing countries are much less involved in world trade than are coastal countries. Most of the critical impediments stem from procedures and services in the transit country, which often sees no advantage for its own economy in addressing the needs of transit traffic.
Some critical solutions include reform of trucking regulation to promote competition, re-engineering of the transit system to simplify documentation requirements, the creation of one-stop border posts to avoid duplication of procedures, automation of customs to reduce direct contact with officials, privatization of port management to reduce corruption, and the establishment of inland clearance centers or dry ports to anticipate clearance procedures.
Progress is already being made, although much more remains to be done. One-stop border post initiatives have begun on the borders between Kenya and Uganda at Malaba, between Zambia and Zimbabwe at Chirundu, between Zimbabwe and Mozambique at Forbes/Machipanda, along the Trans-Kalahari corridor, and in West Africa on some borders of Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Mali. Some landlocked countries already have bonded warehouses at ports in West Africa, and rail concessionaires are developing facilities to speed transits. Examples of the latter include the Sitarail intermodal terminal proposal in Ouagadougou, the ZRS company customs bond at Victoria Falls, and the planned Madarail bonded container terminal near Antananarivo.