East to West

Modern trade corridor spanning Central Asia helps to revive the ancient Silk Road By Wen Qing

Two thousand years ago Chinese caravans, accompanied by the jingle of camel bells, carried goods such as tea and silk to ancient trading centers in Central Asia, such as the Kazakh city Almaty and other faraway places, where they were exchanged with foreign counterparts for spices, furs and other products. Over time their footprints forged the ancient Silk Road, which for centuries witnessed the earliest forms of economic, cultural and political communication between China and the Western world.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, looks to revive the ancient Silk Road and its spirit of economic cooperation with countries along the routes, placing common development through strengthening interconnectivity as its stated goal.

The initiative offers an opportunity for some of history’s great but forgotten metropolises to shine once more, while also attracting new participants to its grand plan. Among these are three countries bordering the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, as well as Turkey who have reached consensus to forge a TransCaspian Corridor to integrate with the Belt and Road Initiative. In early February, the four countries jointly hosted an international conference on the Role of the Trans-Caspian East-West Trade and Transit Corridor in the Realization of the Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing, in an attempt to align the two development strategies.

Economic prosperity

The Trans- Caspian Corridor starts from China, crossing the Caspian Sea, and passing through Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, eventually reaching Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine and other states surrounding the Black Sea. From start to finish, it spans 6,500 km.

With the trade between China and Europe set to increase, the transportation of freight by train will become an attractive prospect due to low costs and high speeds compared with alternatives via sea and air. This route, cutting through Central Asia and the Caucasus, is the shortest and most direct means of connecting China and Europe.

According to statistics from the European Commission, China and Europe trade on average over $1.2 billion a day. Chi Fulin, President of the China Institute for Development and Reform, forecasted a possible $1 trillion in trade by 2020 in comments about the future expansion of trade volume between the two sides. In light of these figures, economic activity related to the transport and accommodation of goods has the potential to bring great economic prosperity to countries along the routes.

Early in 2014, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Investment and Development issued a document outlining its aim to attract 8 percent of EU-China freight traffic by 2020 based on its advantage of location, equivalent to 15 million tons of cargo, according to their calculations.

Facilitating connectivity is one of the central goals of the Belt and Road Initiative, which prioritizes the construction of infrastructure, including railways, highways, and ports throughout participating regions. In his opening speech at the conference, Wang Shouwen, Vice Chinese Minister of Commerce, welcomed the conception of the Trans-Caspian Corridor as highly consistent with the Belt and Road Initiative.

New railways

The backbone of the corridor, the BakuTbilisi- Kars Railway was completed in October last year. With a total length of 846 km, the capacity of the Baku-TbilisiKars Railway is expected to reach 17 million tons of cargo by 2030. The project also included the Marmaray Tunnel which passes under the Bosphorus Strait, and through which goods can reach Europe through its terminals in Turkey and Bulgaria.

Wang’s comments included high praise for these new routes, noting that the China- Europe freight train from Urumqi in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to Europe started its maiden voyage on the railway on January 19, marking a milestone in the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Railway transport via the Trans-Caspian Corridor would be shortened to 12 to 15 days from the 40 to 62 days it takes by sea, Veysi Kurt, Director General and Chairman of the Board for Turkish State Railways Transport, said.

Li Wenxin, Vice General Manager of the China Railway Corp., noted that railway transportation between China and Europe enjoyed the advantage of large capacity, low prices and high speeds, and that the transportation time via the Trans-Caspian