Agence France Presse — English
November 10, 2006 Friday 2:04 PM GMT

Asia moves closer to "Iron Silk Road" railway network

by Jun Kwanwoo

BUSAN, South Korea, Nov 10 2006

Eighteen Asian nations, including China and Russia, Friday signed an
agreement to integrate the continent into a single railway network,
moving a step closer to realising a decades-old dream.

The inter-governmental agreement on establishing the Trans-Asia
Railway (TAR) network aims to promote trade and balanced development
in the world’s fastest-growing continent.

The signing came on the first day of a two-day annual ministerial
meeting on transport, organised by the UN Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

"By signing today, you infuse life into the agreement," UNESCAP
executive secretary Kim Hak-Su told them.

The 81,000-kilometer (50,200-mile) network, first mooted by the UN
back in 1960, is also dubbed the "Iron Silk Road" after the ancient
trade route. It would link capitals, ports and industrial hubs across
28 Asian countries all the way to Europe.

UN officials cited procedural matters rather than disagreement over
the project as the reason why 10 of the 28 states did not sign. They
have another two years to do so.

The railway network will ease international trade and create "the
conditions for shared prosperity," Kim told the signatories.

He said earlier in the day the TAR would "link the hinterland areas
in the deep interior of the Asian continent with Asia’s bustling
maritime cities and European markets."

Twelve of the world’s 30 landlocked countries are in Asia.

"These linkages will provide seamless connectivity through transport
arteries to Asian ports and European markets," Kim said.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a message to the meeting, said
advances in transport "improve productivity, reduce costs and promote
trade. That in turn encourages economic growth and social
development."

Kim has said he expects the accord to come into force in the second
half of next year after eight countries ratify it.

The ratification would encourage international lenders such as the
Asian Development Bank to seriously consider loan requests from TAR
signatories, some of whom are in desperate need of finance, he said.

Wang Zhiguo, China’s deputy railways minister, said his country
ardently backs the project.

"The Chinese economy continues to grow through efforts to improve and
maintain efficient transport and logistic systems," he told the
forum.

"We’re signing the agreement because we can fulfil many of our goals
in transport with it."

Alexander Misharin, Russia’s deputy transport minister, said Moscow
was working hard to modernise its vast network, including the
trans-Siberia railway connecting to Korea, in support of the TAR.

His country was one of the signatories.

Despite the enthusiasm among many countries, the slow progress over
the past five decades indicates the challenges still ahead.

The TAR network would connect trans-Asian railway networks with
Russia and Mongolia in the north, Malaysia in the south, South Korea
in the east and Turkey in the west.

But one stumbling block is North Korea. South Korea would have to
traverse its territory to gain access to the Russian or Chinese rail
networks.

Work has been completed on laying track across the heavily fortified
inter-Korean frontier. But planned test runs were cancelled in May
amid tensions over other issues.

Continent-wide problems include switching between different-gauge
tracks, where to stop, how to handle sometimes tricky quarantine and
immigration paperwork, and how to safely ferry cargo and people
across many borders.

But Asia, home to 60 percent of the world’s population and generating
26 percent of the world’s economic output, deserves better transport,
UNESCAP chief Kim has said.

It boasts 13 of the world’s top 20 container seaports but has fewer
than 100 "dry ports" — inland container depots. Europe, by contrast,
has 200 and the United States 370.

Signatories of the TAR accord Friday were Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal,
South Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey,
Uzbekistan and Vietnam

At the Busan conference, delegates also plan to issue two sets of
declarations — one on the direction of regional transport
development in the next five years and the other on road safety.