Ancient Silk Road to get modern railway counterpart
11 Nov '06
3 min read
A 50-year-old dream to forge a railway version of the famed Silk Road of old moved a step closer to realization at a regional United Nations transport conference with the signing of an agreement to create an 81,000-kilometre network originating on the Pacific seaboard of Asia and ending up on the doorstep of Europe.
The Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network (TAR), signed by 18 Member States of the UN Economic and social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) at its ministerial conference on transport in Busan, Republic of Korea, compliments a 2005 accord on the Asian Highway Network.
“Through these two Agreements, UNESCAP will usher in a new era of cooperation and partnership for regional integration,” Commission Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su said, stressing the so-called 'Iron' Silk Road's projected role in facilitating international trade and tourism.
“What underpins that vision? Certainly the conviction that the possibility to move and trade freely creates new opportunities and opens up new horizons for people,” he added of the proposed network, which will link up and rehabilitate existing lines.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a message to the conference, termed the agreement “a milestone in cooperation” within the region.
“Sustainable transport has a significant role to play in advancing efforts towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), by improving access for those that todayare far removed from opportunities, services and markets,” he added, referring to the ambitious targets for slashing a host of social ills such as extreme poverty, hunger, maternal and infant mortality, and a lack of access to education, all by 2015.
marketing@alchempro.com
