Economic corridors in the context of the development of macroregions

The most important transport routes in the world economy form an integrated transport network designed to service international trade. Modern international economic corridors represent a system of institutional, technical, technological, and geographical elements that jointly enable significant volumes of international freight transport by various modes of transportation. The present study examines the impact of economic corridors on the regional levels of socioeconomic development. Findings indicate that regions within which an economic corridor has been built develop at a higher pace that regions without such a corridor running through it. The regression analysis revealed a relationship between the pace of regional socioeconomic development and road freight volumes. However, this relationship was observed with respect to regions having more than one economic corridor running through their territory. The existence of economic corridors has most significantly influenced the level of trade, exports, transportation volumes, and level of investment. The SWOT analysis of regions revealed the major threats associated with the construction of economic corridors, and recommendations of their optimization and adaptation were drawn accordingly. In addition, this study highlights the main directions of and criteria for the transport infrastructure development.