Kyoda News
Wednesday April 12

U.N. meeting adopts resolution on trans-Asian railway network
(Kyodo) _ A U.N. meeting adopted Wednesday a resolution on an agreement to
construct the ambitious Trans-Asian Railway Network connecting 28 countries
from Asia to Europe, paving the way for its signing in November.
The adoption of the resolution on the Intergovernmental Agreement on the
Trans-Asian Railway Network was made by ministers and officials attending
the 62nd annual meeting of the Bangkok-based U.N. Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
“The TAR network is one of the building blocks towards the realization of
the vision of an international integrated intermodal transport system for
the whole region,” UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak Su told participants
of the meeting.
“The agreement identified routes of international importance that serve the
immediate transport needs of UNESCAP members, providing regional
connectivity as well as linkages to Europe,” he added.
The agreement, aimed at offering efficient transport services for the
movement of passengers and goods within the UNESCAP region and between Asia
and Europe, will open for signature during a ministerial conference on
transport slated for Nov. 6-11 in Busan, South Korea.
The TAR network consists of about 81,000 kilometers of rail routes
connecting 28 countries in the region that are also UNESCAP members, from
Indonesia in the south to Russia in the north and from Turkey in the west to
South Korea in the east.
Studies by UNESCAP member countries carried out between 1996 and 2001 have
identified four corridors: the 12,600-km Southeast Asia corridor, the
32,500-km Northeast Asia corridor, the 13,200-km Central Asia and Caucasus
corridor and the 22,600-km South Asia-Iran-Turkey corridor.
Initiated in early 1960s, the TAR project was earlier aimed at providing a
continuous 14,000-km rail link between Singapore and Istanbul with possible
onward connections to Europe and Africa.
Regional conflicts and centralistic economic policies that opposed a more
open market-oriented economy, however, have prevented materialization of the
ambitious plan.
The return of peace to Southeast Asia, the emergence of independent
countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia and the adoption of
market-oriented economic principles in many countries, particularly in China
and Russia, in 1980s and early 1990s raised the need for the development in
efficient transport infrastructure and services.
Finally, in 1992, the idea, which is also aimed at providing improved access
for landlocked countries to major ports, was revived under the framework of
the Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development project adopted by
UNESCAP’s 48th session.
A similar international agreement on the Asian Highway Network, also under
the auspices of UNESCAP, came into force in July 2005.
UNESCAP groups Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Georgia,
India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia,
Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri
Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.