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International Consultant (PRC) for transport corridor and cross-border facilitation study

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The Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) (originally known as the Tumen River Area Development Programme –TRADP), is an intergovernmental cooperation mechanism in Northeast Asia, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with a membership of four countries: People’s Republic of China (PRC), Republic of Korea (ROK), Mongolia and the Russian Federation. The mandate of the GTI geographically covers so-called the Greater Tumen Region (GTR) which includes China’s three Northeast provinces and Inner Mongolia, three eastern provinces (aimags) of Mongolia, the eastern ports of the ROK and the Primorsky Territory of Russia.
Since its creation, the GTI has remained a unique intergovernmental platform for economic cooperation, fostering peace, stability and sustainable development in Northeast Asia. It is playing a significant role in expanding policy dialogue and strengthening a business-friendly environment in the region, therefore contributing to the improvement of living standards through the development of infrastructure and the promotion of trade and investment.
The top priority among the projects and activities under the Program was placed to the “Integrated Transport Infrastructure and Cross-Border Facilitation Study for the Trans-GTR Transport Corridors” project. GTI Transport Corridor Study aims at fostering development of a reliable, cost-effective and efficient integrated transport network in the GTR through planning and facilitating the activation and development of international transport corridors in the region. To reach the Project objectives, a team of five national consultants from the member-countries (PRC, ROK, Mongolia, and Russia) and Japan and one International Consultants will be composed.

Duties and Responsibilities
Each Consultant will provide the inputs related to his/her country on the base of desk studies, field trips and comments made at the project progress meetings. The Final Report will be compiled by the International Consultant from the National Final Reports. The consultant reports to the GTI Secretariat.
  • Define present status of the trans-GTR transport corridors: freight and passenger flows directions, volumes, modal structure; state of infrastructure; major bottlenecks, etc. Provide transport forecast for the trans-GTR corridors, list existing development plans, and identify traffic demand.
  • Identify present bottlenecks for the freight and passenger flows, analyze existing cross-border practices and transport policies in the GTR region, reveal key challenges for the trans-GTR transport corridors activation and development and recommend transport and cross-border facilitation measures.
  • Develop a transport and cross-border facilitation strategy and action plans (implementation mechanism) to comprehensively address the identified challenges by planning tasks for the public and private stakeholders.
  • Identify and design in-detail key transport projects (for both infrastructure and service) and policy measures (on transit and border-crossing issues) essential for the activation and further development of the trans-GTR transport corridors.
Duties and Responsibilities:
The Consultant is expected to study issues related to transportation system of the Chinese part of GTI as well as maritime segments of all the trans-GTR transport corridors, in their part related to China.
The Consultant is responsible for the examination of the Chinese segments of the following Corridors:
  • Suifenhe Transport Corridor – from the border with Russia at Manzhouli to the border with Russia at Suifenhe;
  • Tumen Transport Corridor – from the border with Mongolia at Yirshi (Arxan) to the border with Russia at Hunchun and border with the DPRK at Tumen (rail) and Quanhe(road);
  • Dalian Transport Corridor – from Dalian to the border with Russia at Heihe;
  • Korean Peninsula West Corridor – from the border with the DPRK at Dandong to Harbin.
The Consultant (PRC) shall:
  • Work in close consultations with the other team members and the GTI Secretariat.
  • Gather and analyze basic data on the transport and logistic development, current freight and passenger flows (rail, road, sea), trade flows through Chinese parts of the Greater Tumen Region and the Sea-land Intermodal (Ferry) Routes between China–Russian Far East–Japan–Korea.
  • Gather and analyze data on the current state of the infrastructure facilities along the trans-GTR corridors (railways, roads, seaports, logistics centers, border crossings, dry ports/inland container depots, etc.) and existing plans and prospects for their development.
  • Examine formalities, regulations and procedures on border crossing and transit along the trans-GTR corridors (customs clearance, immigration and quarantine control, border inspection, licensing, etc.) and recent governmental policies towards border crossing.
  • Conduct traffic demand analysis and traffic forecast for the Chinese part of the corridors listed above.
  • Conduct field studies at the important loci at the corridors and sea-land transportation routes, such as border crossing points, sea and dry ports, transportation nodes, etc.
  • Identify, categorize and thoroughly analyze major bottlenecks, pending issues and other problems, including gaps in infrastructure and quality of transport and logistics services, which impede the activation and further development of the trans-GTR transport corridors.
  • Identify possible solutions to the problems constraining the progress on implementation of the trans-GTR transport corridors.
  • Estimate financial, technical and other requirements needed to actualize the solutions identified and outline proper arrangements of the requirements.
  • Develop strategic measures to the formalization and operationalization of the international transport corridors in the Chinese part of the GTR and the region as whole to be included to the Regional Strategy.
  • Identify the roles of public and private stakeholders in the eliminating the barriers and solving the problems, connected with launch and development of the transport corridors passing through Greater Tumen Region.
  • Develop National action plan reflecting measures for eliminating barriers and containing tentative implementation framework.
  • Propose national, bilateral and multilateral policy measures of critical importance for facilitating earliest corridor’s activation and smooth functioning.
  • Participate in the development of the GTI Transport Corridor Database (in the form of Excel spreadsheets).
  • Identify a number of priority transport projects and policy measures within the Regional Strategy and the National Action Plan.
  • Draft the relevant inputs to the Interim Report and draft National Draft Final Report (including report on the integrated transport and facilitating infrastructures development plan (study) for the trans-GTR transport corridors, regional strategy, national action plan, GTI Transport Corridor Database and priority project list).
  • Undertake all the necessary action to successfully complete the tasks above.
Time Input and Deliverables
The Consultant works from his/her home office and is expected to make the field trips needed to gather the up-to-date information on the state of infrastructure and cross-border formalities, to participate the Project progress meetings.
Expected deliverables:
Concept Note containing desk review (i) of the current freight and passenger flows (rail, road, sea), trade flows through respective part of the GTR and contiguous maritime area, (ii) of existing transport policies for in-bound, out-bound and transit traffic (overall national policies and recent governmental initiatives towards border crossing), (iii) of existing transport facilitation measures and frameworks (bilateral/ trilateral/ multilateral transport development and operation agreements and MOU), and (iv) work plan for the activities needed to prepare Interim Report, including schedule of interviews, field trips, home based works, indicating what outcome is expected.
Interim Report containing (i) preliminary findings on related infrastructure facilities and existing plans and prospects for their development, (ii) preliminary findings on formalities, regulations and procedures on border crossing and transit, and recent governmental policies towards border crossing, (iii) details on corridor specific passenger and fright flows and traffic demand analysis, (iv) forecast of the costs and benefits of the corridor operationalization, (v) analysis of major bottlenecks, pending issues and other problems, including gaps in infrastructure and quality of transport and logistics services, (vi) possible solutions to the problems constraining the activation of the trans-GTR corridors, (vii) estimates of financial, technical and other requirements needed to actualize the solutions identified, (viii) suggestions on GTI Transport Corridor Database structure and contents.
National Final Report containing the improved after the discussions contents of Interim Report, input to the Regional Strategy and National Action for GTI transport corridors activation and cross-border facilitation, list of priority projects and policy measures, and national input for the GTI Transport Corridor Database.
Tentative Work Schedule

Activities
Working Days
Timeline
Preparation of the Concept Note
The Concept Note is due 1 months after the starting date
Activities to produce Interim Report
24 days
3 day
Estimated to be in April 2012
Preparing the draft National Final Report
30 days
The National Final Report is due 9 months after the starting date
Participation in the 2st Project Progress meeting
3 day
Estimated to be in October 2012
Review and improvement of the draft National Final Report
5 days
The revised version is expected within 2 weeks after the 2nd Project Progress Meeting
Review of the draft Final Report and Executive Summary Report prepared by International Consultant
5 days
The comments on the Final & Executive Summary Reports are expected within 1 month since it is send to the Consultant.

Competencies
· At least 10 years of working experience in the field of transportation economics, logistics and regional development.
· Extensive research experience on the regional transport issues such as infrastructure, border crossing, policy, development and international cooperation.
· Deep knowledge of transport policies, transport facilitation, transport infrastructure and the national transport systems.
· Prior experience in transport-related issues in GTI member countries (People’s Republic of China, Mongolia, Russian Federation and Republic of Korea).

Required Skills and Experience
· Advanced academic degree in a field of transportation economics, logistics and regional development or other relevant field.
· Fluency in English (both written and spoken) and Chinese.
· Fluency in one of the following languages: Russian, Korean or Japanese would be an advantage.
· Familiarity with the intergovernmental cooperation activities under the GTI framework would be an advantage.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

International Consultant (PRC) for transport corridor and cross-border facilitation study

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