How Landlocked Countries are Facing Regional Pressure in Economic Development: A Curse to Accessing World Market

Abstract

Despite improved means of transportation, land-locked developing countries that have lacked access to the global economy still face systemic problems. By contrast, landlocked countries, many countries lag behind their maritime neighbors in the overall development and with respect to trade with other countries that are at sea. Dependency on transit neighbors in addition to the general geographical distance can explain the poor performance of landlocked countries. There are five possible forms of interdependence examined: dependence on the physical and geographic borders; political interdependence on sound borders; cross-border interdependence on stable relations; administrative dependence on the soundness of neighbors; and dependence on various facets of the neighbors. The conditions in various landlocked countries yield different sets of difficulties and problems.