Key factors in developing transit trade corridors in Northeast Asia

The purpose of this paper is to investigate key critical factors for developing transit trade corridors (TTCs) in optimizing trade and logistics performance, taking into account economic, geographic and political concerns among countries in the Northeast Asia region, which have been dynamically developing TTCs to optimize trade and logistics performance in association with development of transport infrastructure in the Greater Tumen Region located in the Northeast Asia. Design/methodology/approach This research explores key factors affecting the TTC through a comprehensive literature review in tandem with expert survey. Factor analysis, both exploratory and confirmatory, is employed to further investigate the underlying factors affecting more efficient development of a TTC. Findings This research has drawn eight underlying factors affecting the design of a TTC: development and policy implications; safety, security and political concerns; environmental protection; financing and investment; soft infrastructure; hard infrastructure; geography and landscape; and corridor performance. Research limitations/implications This paper has a limited geographical scope of the Northeast Asia. Therefore, more primary data collection would be useful in future work. Development of International trade corridor and TTC is critical in northeast Asia for moving goods through designated geographical paths. The key factors drawn in this paper contributes not only to promoting its related services and information (across borders) with the provision of policy support and related facilities for TTC but also to lowering logistics costs and improving trades in the northeast Asian region. As a result, the countries in the region will accelerate their regional economies in collaboration with international bodies and framework, such as UNDP, Greater Tumen Initiative and One Belt One Road Initiative