DEVELOPMENT-ASIA: Major Highway Project Due to Start Its Journey

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Apr 9 2004 (IPS) - An ambitious project to link major cities and capitals of Asian countries through a network of highways is due to begin its hopeful journey late April, at a regional conference to be held in Shanghai, China.

Already, 32 Asian countries have shown interest in the proposed Asian Highway, which is expected to span over 140,000 kilometres, say senior U.N. officials.

Of them, 20 countries are ready to sign the highway agreement in the Chinese city, which will host the 60th session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Bangkok-based U.N. regional agency, from Apr. 22-28.

They include Japan, on eastern corner of the highway, to Georgia, on the western fringes of the territory ESCAP covers. The other countries also stepping up to support this transport project are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

”This highway is really necessary to connect neighbouring countries, ”Kim Hak-Su, ESCAP’s executive secretary, said at a press conference on Friday. ”It will take a long time to complete but we have to start somewhere.”

According to Raj Kumar, ESCAP’s chief economist, the network of roads that enable goods to move overland from, say, Ho Chi Minh City to Moscow will help boost trade in the region.

”It will offer countries an alternative to transporting goods by air or by sea, ” he added. ”Landlocked countries like Bhutan, Nepal and Laos stand to gain from this project.”

This is ”the first time (that) countries made a formal commitment to the linkages and alignment of highways totalling over 140,000 kilometres and connecting 32 member countries,” states a new study, ‘Meeting the Challenges in an Era of Globalisation by Strengthening Regional Development Cooperation.’

The genesis of this plan dates back to 1959, adds the report that was released on Friday.

The project, which was subsequently endorsed in 1992, aims to ”develop land bridges that connect adjoining regions and bring into force international conventions that facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and people in transit.”

With concrete support for the Asian highway coming from one-third of ESCAP’s 62-member countries, the region will mark ”a major step towards the realisation of a massive land transport network linking (Asia’s) capital cities, tourism sites, industrial and agricultural centres and sea and river ports,” the report observes.

What had slowed plans for this project till now was the Cold War, said Kim. ”During the Cold War period, we could not think of linking highways in China, the former Soviet Union, and Korea.”

Other political realities had also put the brakes on the Asian Highway blueprint, the report states. ”Conflicts and lack of trust caused considerable damage to the land transport infrastructure in many countries and created barriers to international land transport.”

For ESCAP, which is leading the way in this transportation effort, the agreement to be signed in Shanghai will underscore the willingness among Asian countries to forge a new level of cooperation after decades of mistrust and hostility towards one another.

The agreement calls on countries endorsing this initiative to work on giving a new touch to the existing roadways that will become part of the Asian Highway. That will include conforming to a common standard for road signs, design standards and also uniform measures, including rules and regulations, to facilitate border crossings

”The countries will have to do more work once they endorse the agreement,” said Kim. ”They have to meet minimum highway standards. Currently, there are highways (in the region) that do not meet specific standards.”

However, ESCAP officials are unable to give a date by when this sprawling web of roadways will become a reality. Nor, for that matter, can they give an estimated cost of this venture.

”The amount will be tremendous and we propose public-private partnerships to fund this effort if governments cannot finance it,” said Kim. ”It will take a long time to complete.” Currently, the planned highway programme to link the six countries that share the Mekong River – Burma, Cambodia, southern China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam -provides a glimpse of what a sub-regional network of roadways could mean to its citizens.

According to the Asian Development Bank (AsDB), which is one of the funders of this project, a 2,000 kilometre-long journey between Bangkok and the southern Chinese city of Kunming will only take 20 hours once the highway linking the two cities is ready by 2006.

To facilitate travel from east to west, the AsDB is funding a 1,500 kilometre-long highway that begins in Da Nang, the Vietnamese city along the South China Sea, and ends in Mawlamyine, the Burmese city along the Andaman Sea.

For ESCAP’s Kumar, the planned network of highways will also enable Asians to enjoy people-to-people contacts and increase tourism within the region the ”same way it has happened in Europe, because of their road and rail links.”