Albion Basin Negotiation Reflection Group

            Transportation is the basic need for modern society. To move in or outside the city we require transport. In fact, not only human being but also the movement of animals and goods from one place to another place require proper transportation network (Merna and Njiru). In the developed countries, road networks and highways enable the fast and easy flow of traffic to ensure the movement of goods and traveling of citizens in and outside the cities. Even road conditions and other transportation systems including an underground network of metro trains and airplanes transportation are working efficiently but the government of these modern countries is spending huge budgets on the development of roads and transportation systems (Merna and Njiru).

        During the last few years, a number of transport infrastructure projects are completed in developed countries with huge budgets to ensure working on the mega project. Infrastructure term basically refers to the organizational structure, facilities, and physical structure of something. Economic infrastructures include transportation infrastructure, financial infrastructure, water supply infrastructure, energy infrastructure, and Heath infrastructure (Egis-group.com).

            According to the economic concept, infrastructure is important in the country to alleviate poverty and to ensure faster economic growth. In this essay main focus is on transport infrastructure and the impact of governance and regulation of transport infrastructure on economic growth and development (Cárcamo-Díaz and Goddard). Before discussing economic growth and challenges of infrastructure it is essential to go in detail for transport infrastructure to make the concepts clear to understand.

        Transport infrastructure is a commonly used term in the society and academic literature that represents a complete framework that can support the transport system in a society/state/country. Development of transport infrastructure is the key reasonability of local and national level government in a country (Lebo and Schelling). Some main types of transportation-focused by the government of a developed country includes pipeline, space transport, road, and off-road transport, rail, and cable transport. Transport infrastructure has a key role in the overall development and progress of the country.

            Transport infrastructure support import and export of goods in the international market and neighborhood countries. Lack of physical connectivity between countries works as barriers for the growth of international trade (Benedict, McMahon and Fund). Countries earn revenue from the international trade of goods. As a result of poor infrastructure of transportation, a country cannot build strong trade relations in the region and international market. Excluding international trade, local trade between urban and rural areas also require developed transport infrastructure and good physical connectivity (Cárcamo-Díaz and Goddard).

There are a number of countries in the world that are supporting the development of transport infrastructure to support their trade and economic growth. For instance, Nigeria is going to build a 154 mile railway to enhance its export business with the neighbor country (Cárcamo-Díaz and Goddard). The economic corridor between Pakistan and China is also a fine example of transport infrastructure development to facilitate regional trade business (TRIEU). In addition, United Arab Emirate (UAE) rail project is the mega project of transport infrastructure development in the Middle East. In this essay, United Arab Emirate (UAE) rail project is discussed in detail to present the impact of regulations and governance of United Arab Emirate (UAE) rail project on the economic growth and development (Globalrailwayreview.com).

            United Arab Emirate (UAE) started the rail project to enhance the transportation system in the UAE. UAE rail project is also known as Etihad rail network project. Etihad railway network will interlink five countries of 7GCC. Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait are the countries that will directly get the benefit of this transport infrastructure (Cárcamo-Díaz and Goddard)e. According to the reports presented by the UAE total length of Etihad rail is around 1200 kilometers. Rail network will run up to Saudi Arabia border while touching the borders of Sultanate-e-Oman. The project has two stages (Lebo and Schelling). The first stage was completed before 2016 that is fully functional in freight transportation. According to the records presented by the UE government, Etihad rail has transported around 7 million tons of Sulphur that is almost equal to the goods and freight transported by 494,000 trucks (Egis-group.com).

            Infrastructure get influence from the different challenges and factors in a negative and positive way. Factors that support the positive impact on infrastructure are supportive legal regulations, supportive political powers, and huge financial budgets to work on the development project (Lebo and Schelling). Somehow, there are some challenges and factors that can cause a negative influence on infrastructure. for instance, poor financial support, the unstable economic condition in the country, increasing inflation, lack of innovation, policies, and strategies made by the governance, and regulations related to the infrastructure project. In this essay transport infrastructure is the subject of the whole research. (Benedict, McMahon and Fund) Considering this we can say that transport infrastructure has challenges and impact because of government policies and strategies. Creative thinking and innovation also have an impact on transport infrastructure. Managerial staff focusing on innovation and creative thinking also encourage the innovative ways of project completion to secure resources wastage and ensure financial benefits for the project administration (Rietveld and Bruinsma). Financial problems and challenges also influence the performance of transport infrastructure in a negative manner (Egis-group.com). UAE project (Etihad project part 2) was put on hold by the government because of the unavailability of sufficient financial resources. The project was again resumed in 2018 with a total budget of $11 billion. Governance decision to put the project on hold influence the economic growth in a negative way (Etihadrail. ae). The country could transport millions of tonne goods from this transport infrastructure in case of on time of completion (without delay) of this project. But the project was delayed because of the government decision regarding hold on financial budgets (Etihadrail. ae). According to the concept of opportunity cost, estimated loss caused by this governance decision was in billions of dollars. Thus, in short, we can conclude that governance decisions draw an impact on economic growth. Excluding decisions made by the governance, goals set out at the corporate governance level can also define the directions of a transport infrastructure project (Etihadrail. ae). Development projects that are given importance by the government of the country and project governance usually show better economic growth.

Governance and UAE project of Albion Basin Negotiation Reflection Group

        The railway regulations are defined by the government to extend the service guidelines and to improve the services. The significant role of Roads and transport Authority (RTA), Rail Agency of RTA, and Safety and Regulation Authority (SRA) is not neglect able (Globalrailwayreview.com). The government designs rail regulators, network for the design and development of public railways, maintenance and operation of the railways in Emirate of Dubai. The government issues Safety Certificates and Operational safety certificates that works properly for the investigation of accidents and the safety conditions of the services (Globalrailwayreview.com). The Government of Abu Dhabi holds nearly 70% of the stake in the Etihad rail and the remaining of 30% is owned by the federal government. Therefore, rules and regulations for the operation, safety measures, services, tracking development, and innovative construction projects is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi (Globalrailwayreview.com). Besides that, RTA also regulates the operation and maintenance, and construction development of the private rail network in the Dubai. The operational part of RTA is SRA that works to resolve the issues for the operational safety and the safety certificates. The agency provides no objection certificates for the proposed area to work on the railway network and construction process (Globalrailwayreview.com).

Regulation and UAE project  of Albion Basin Negotiation Reflection Group

        The success of the infrastructure is based on the regularity and legislative factors. The implementation and the regularity process enables improved operation of the project. As compared to the rest of the GCC, the developed structures of the UAE works under the regulatory approach (Globalrailwayreview.com). The tramways and the railways in Emirates of Dubai operate under the execution of the council resolution No: 1 of 2017, regulation 5 of 2009, regulation 2 of 2012, and administration decision 68 of 2010. The other law of regulation working in the process are regulation 5 of 2009 and concerning railways in the Emirates of Dubai (Globalrailwayreview.com). The regulation for the operation of Dubai Tramways are somehow different and these regulations includes Dubai Executive council decision 1 of 2014, Dubai rail planning and design guideline (RPDG), and railways regulation 5 of 2009. The implementation of these laws continues forces to work appropriately (Globalrailwayreview.com). Besides these laws the operation of railways are based on other regulations for instance Dubai Municipality Building Regulation. The services provided to the railways system are often different that interfaces the utilities and service lines. These services are Dubai Electricity and water authorities (Globalrailwayreview.com). The railway regulations are defined to improve the transport system for transportation of goods and passengers through a specific track system.

Impact of both on Economic growth  of Albion Basin Negotiation Reflection Group

        The impact of regulations and government is directly on the economic benefits that are delivered by the Etihad rail network. The other economic consideration are cost saving processes. The benefits that supports the commuters, business, and the travelers are tourism and UAE economy. The Etihad railways contributes to improvement of tourism and the wider UAE economy (Etihadrail. ae). The benefits of tourism increases with the faster, safer and convenient services for the tourists. The faster accessibility improves the landmarks for the tourism. The economic analysis suggest that exports increases with the inward investment and improves the employment opportunities to the business owners and property owners (Etihadrail. ae). Etihad corporate is mainly responsible for the commitment of minimizing the environmental impact, wellbeing process, development, and diversity to support the economic development. The rail network provides ultimate services for the passengers and the freight (Etihadrail. ae). The other social benefits, lower cost transportation system, extra convenience, reduced level of highway traffic, and faster journeys are alternative benefits associated with the services (Etihadrail. ae). The projects of Etihad railways attract bulk freight demands and containers that are mainly transported by the trucks. The cost saving services of the railway is transferring the freight from one location to another through the rail and the services improves the commercial success and contributes to the economic growth (Etihadrail. ae). The rail network encourages the business, valuable time, resources, and enables the growth and redirection of the assets in the Etihad Rail services (Etihadrail. ae). In addition to all these benefits, the Etihad rail increases the rail connectivity between the UAE ports and expands their hinterland. The dynamic increase in the services and process captures the new additional values for the freight carriage and the services that are associated with ports across the UAE (Cárcamo-Díaz and Goddard). The development and the operation of the Etihad rail is in line with the UAE national Charter 2021 and the Abu Dhabi Economic vision 2030. The project is transforming the transport and logistic of UAE that provides higher support to the economic diversity, trade and the industry (Cárcamo-Díaz and Goddard). It can be concluded that the co-operation of the UAE entities of the government including RTA, NTA, DOT, and UPC is to ensure the higher benefits that increases economy of the UAE. The Etihad railway services are contributing to the development, growth, and diversification of the UAE economy. The services increases contribution to the GDP and ensures social and economic benefits such as road safety, social benefits, reduction in carbon, sustainability, and efficiency (Cárcamo-Díaz and Goddard).

Effects of the infrastructure failure of Albion Basin Negotiation Reflection Group

        Etihad railways currently has signed up the contract for a sequences of  settlements across the UAE with the purpose to guarantee and secure the systems of the rail transport corridors within the entire regions in emirate. The contractor and developer of the national railway in the UAE itself has declared for a set of both brief and long-term deliberate objectives which aim to achieve the viable enhancement  and develop the economy as well. The plan is supported by the tactical steps which are mentioned such as; support to improve for both the progress of knowledge business, and also work the best with the constancy and empowerment as well.  For this reason, if there is any failure in the Etihad railways system, then the consequence would be disturbing the transportation system within the entire region s in emirate, since as mentioned above that, the Etihad railways are supposed to guarantee and secure for the rail’s system transport corridors across the emirates.

        Another effect which might be occurred if there is any failure in the Etihad railways system would be impacted on the logistic industries in the UAE. The reason behind this is that, the Etihad railway system has been an essential part of the transportation system of the UAE, since it delivers the effective logistics resolutions and provides the services for the metropolitan as well as the residential fields.

        If we speaking about the effect from the failure of Etihad railway system, then we also need to consider about how the railways has facilitates the efficiency in delivering huge numbers of the construction materials from the mines to reach the local market place. Since this activity has been giving an added value for the UAE within the environmental benefits along with the economic profit as well, then the failure would give a serious effect for the country.

        One more important role of the Etihad railways system is that, it provides the advanced solutions to assist the national wealth of the country as well as the economic modification within long term by connecting the entire main ports in the United Arab Emirates. Thus, we can imagine if there is any failure within the Etihad railways system, then it might able to give negative or even destructive effects for the UAE economy system as well (khaleejtimes.com).

Conclusion on Albion Basin Negotiation Reflection Group

        The transport infrastructure cannot deny is playing the significant role in supporting the economic growth of any country across the world. In the context of Etihad railways system, we have mentioned all the evidences above which describing how the railways system really has an essential value for the UAE economic development. As mentioned above, the success of the infrastructure is based on the regularity and legislative factors. The implementation and the regularity process enables improved operation of the project. Therefore, the government of UAE has made some regulations to make sure on the productivity and the efficiency of the railways system as well, since the failure which might happens anytime within the Etihad railways system would give various bad and destructive effects for the economic growth of the country.