Twenty-three countries pledged on Monday to continue modifying
their domestic roadways to accommodate international trade and
exchanges when they signed an intergovernmental agreement on the
Asian Highway Network.
The agreement and its three annexes map out a road
transportation network in Asia, setting down basic technical
standards for the roads and their route signs.
"What we are trying to do through the Asian Highway Network is
to create the same types of opportunities that exist in the coastal
areas for the wide hinterland countries, particularly to provide
opportunities for landlocked countries and their neighbors to be
able to trade more effectively," said Barry Cable, chief of the
Transport and Tourism Division of the United Nations Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
"Not only will it provide opportunities for the landlocked
Central Asian countries to share in the prosperity of the rest of
the region, it will also create opportunities for the highway to
pass through Central Asian countries to reach the European market,"
Cable said.
He added the road network will also create opportunities for
people to travel more easily, enhancing their understanding of
foreign culture and society and contributing to peaceful
development.
However, although the highway link is largely a question of
infrastructure construction, countries still need to enter into
bilateral or multilateral pacts to settle such details as
permission for entry, quotas and the permitted distance of travel
by foreign vehicles.
Initiated in 1959 by the Economic Commission for Asia and the
Far East, the predecessor of UNESCAP, the Asian Highway project now
extends to 32 countries with a total length of 140,000
kilometers.
The open-ended network, still inviting more countries and
highways to join, links capital cities, major harbors, tourist
attractions, and industrial and commercial centers across Asia.
Yesterday's agreement is significant in that it establishes
minimum standards for the development of highways, which will be
conducive to the overall improvement of highway conditions in
Asia.
According to the agreement, if one country wants to change the
linkage, it needs to reach a bilateral agreement with the other
country involved and then send a proposal to a working group of the
Asian Highway Network established by the agreement.
Some analysts also regard the signing of the agreement, which
clarifies the rights and duties of the signatory countries in the
form of a legal document, as a renewal of a pledge by member
countries to further facilitate exchanges in the region through
road transportation.
"Now countries have a consensus that the construction of the
Asian Highway Network is for the facilitation of economic
cooperation, trade and tourism, and in the long run, the formation
of a free-trade zone," said Ju Chengzhi, director-general of the
Department of International Cooperation under China's Ministry of
Communications.
Western region to be linked
With 26,000 kilometers of China's highways already connected
with or planned to link to the Asian Highway Network, this nation
accounts for nearly one-fifth of the network's entire length.
According to Ju, China has already completed the construction of
11,000 kilometers of roads in the network, and the remaining 15,000
kilometers will be ready by 2010.
These roads connect 130 cities in China and lead to 65 famous
tourist attractions.
Most of those sections go through China's western regions, which
are economically depressed compared with the country's prosperous
coastal provinces.
The network will help enhance economic and technical cooperation
between these regions and neighboring countries as well as
promoting trade, said Ju.
China has already signed 12 bilateral and multilateral road
transportation agreements with 10 countries in the region.
Demand is growing for cross-border road transportation,
particularly in China's northeast, northwest and southwest
regions.
China is currently working with Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos
and Thailand for an agreement to facilitate road transportation in
the greater Mekong River region. Another multilateral road
transportation pact is being negotiated with the other five members
of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, all in Central Asia.
Railway network vital to integration
While savoring the milestone signing of the intergovernmental
agreement on the Asian Highway Network, Asian nations are already
exploring the possibility of taking the idea a step further with a
trans-Asian railway network.
"The work immediately following the signing of the Asian Highway
agreement is to begin negotiations now over a similar agreement
with respect to trans-Asian railways," said Barry Cable.
Cable said that a substantial amount of negotiations will take
place between countries over the next two years to agree on a
railway network similar to the highway link.
Presently, UNESCAP's Transport and Tourism Division is working
on a draft agreement on the railway project, which will be
presented next November.
"The critical element of the trans-Asian railway agreement will
be with respect to the interoperability of the railways, the
operation of the management organizations which are in the
government, in terms of how to schedule trains and where the gauges
of the trains are different, (how) to collaborate together to
change the cargo," said Cable.
He added that the agreement will also identify particular
stations of international importance along the trans-Asian
railways.
The agreement has a good chance of being signed at the end of
2006, Cable said.
During the opening ceremony for the senior officials segment of
the UNESCAP 60th Commission Session last Thursday, Executive
Secretary Kim Hak-su pledged more effort on infrastructure
development in the Asia-Pacific region, mentioning the Asian
Highway Network and a railway network that may follow.
Cable said the countries that signed the highway agreement are
the major sponsors behind the concept of trans-Asian railways.
Wang Yuzhu, of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies Department
of Economic Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,
said that trans-Asian railways would be a significant propelling
force for the integration process in Asia.
"The railways will bring enhanced flow of goods and personnel,
which is a concrete change much more useful than officials' talks
during forums," said Wang.
Wang said that the railways are superior to the highway network
in their much larger transportation capacity and easier
management.
In some regions in Asia, road transportation has already become
a major route for cross-border crime, such as drug trafficking. The
steady growth in vehicle flow has put increasing pressure on border
checks to guard against such crimes.
A railway is currently under construction between Kunming,
capital of southwest China's Yunnan
Province, and Bangkok, Thailand. The railway is expected to
greatly facilitate trade and transportation.
Transnational railways have been an important method of
transportation in Europe.
However, Cable was cautious in comparing the trans-Asian railway
system in the making to the railway network already in operation in
Europe.
He noted that in Asia, the railways play a much more important
role in transportation than in Europe, adding that their operation
is also different from Europe, where private companies run the
system.
"The agreement in Asia needs to reflect the specific
requirements of the countries," said Cable.
"The idea is not to just look at what has happened in Europe and
try to replicate it here. We expect the intergovernmental
agreement, when it is negotiated by the countries (in Asia), will
reflect the differences," Cable added.
(China Daily April 27, 2004)