Landlocked Countries

Every continent, except North America has maritime enclaves. Major enclaves include Bolivia, Switzerland, Austria, and Mongolia. Landlocked countries have transport costs which are on average 50% higher than countries that are not. The median landlocked country has less than 40% of the trade volume of the median coastal country. For landlocked countries in the developing world the following issues are particularly prevalent:

• Difficulties to access international markets and a dependency on the stability and openness of neighboring countries to insure a reliable access to international markets.
• Economies that tend to be reliant on the resource sector, such as agriculture and mining. While agriculture tends to be mostly subsisting, other resources have a strong export component.
• The internal transport system tends to be deficient with a high level of concentration, mostly around the capital.

A landlocked country can mitigate its lack of accessibility to global trade through the development of transport corridors towards maritime gateways. While fluvial navigation is possible, effective fluvial systems servicing landlocked countries are mostly present in Europe (e.g. Switzerland and Austria are serviced by barges). It is through rail corridors that the most effective freight services are established. There are no specific connectivity barriers for landlocked countries to access air transportation (e.g. Zurich is a major air transport hub in Europe), but landlocked countries tend to be less connected because of their lower levels of development.

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