Columbia International Affairs Online
CIAO DATE: 11/5/2007
The role of freight transport in economic development: An analysis of the interaction between global value chains and their associated transport chains
July 2007
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is first to discuss the paradox that freight transport, which so clearly is an important prerequisite for the processes of regional development and economic international-isation and globalisation, since the 1970s has almost vanished from mainstream economic geo-graphy and development studies, and is most often hardly mentioned in studies of international industrial development and global commodity or value chains. Secondly, the paper discusses the consequences of leaving freight transport out of the value chain analyses and argues that it has had serious consequences for economic development especially in the peripheral parts of the world, not least in Africa, and for our understanding of rural poverty.
