Revival of Eurasian passage to boost regional trade, stability

URUMQI -- China has called for reinvigorating the once-glorious "Silk Road" trade route by stepping up Eurasian cooperation, which is expected to boost regional trade and stability.

The heads of the states and governments, as well as investors, are discussing the prospect of reviving a trade route across the vast Eurasian land, at the ongoing second China-Eurasia Expo in Urumqi, capital of the northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, where the Silk Road once threaded through.

"The construction of the grand Eurasian passage is speeding up, " Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at the opening ceremony of the expo on Sunday.

Seventeen state-level open ports, two international airports and extensive roads and railways link the landlocked Xinjiang, China's westernmost region, to the country's neighbors to the west.

The second cross-border railway between China and Kazakhstan has been linked up and the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway will soon be launched in full.

"A multi-dimensional 'Silk Road' consisting of roads, railways, air flights, communications and oil and gas pipelines is taking shape," said Wen.

The revival of the Eurasian route came nearly 2,000 years after the 7,000-km "Silk Road" was created by camel-driving merchants who carried silk and porcelain to western Europe and spices to the Far East. The road lost its significance as the age of sailing set in.

But now, more businesspeople have turned to the much shorter Eurasian land passage, avoiding the maritime trade route that makes a wide detour to the south.

"It takes more than one month for a 40-foot container, equivalent to two TEUs, to reach Europe from central or western China through the sea route," Che Tanlai, a senior researcher with China's Ministry of Railways, said on the sidelines of the expo. "But it only takes 14-15 days through the Eurasian land route."

"The shortened transport time will increase the utilization rate of capital and accordingly boost trade along the route," he added.

Che said the cross-continent grand passage will boost regional economic and trade development in the Eurasian heartland.

Kyrgyz Economy and Antimonopoly Minister Temir Sariev said the "Silk Road" and the great Eurasian space are the "link and platform" for the region to further boost trade and economic cooperation for Eurasian countries located along the "Silk Road."

"For example, there is huge potential for cooperation in agricultural product processing of nuts and canned fruit," he said.

It is widely believed that with strong economic complementariness, there lies enormous potential for trade cooperation between the Far East, which is rich in labor forces and boasts advanced processing technologies, and Central Asia, where there are abundant resources.

Albertas Aruna, secretary of the East-West Transport Corridor Association, told a forum on logistics during the expo that he is looking for huge trade potential between the European Union and Asia on the corridor linking Asia and Europe.

"Today the transport corridor sees only 2 percent of the overall EU-Asia trade. But we are looking for 10 percent," he said.