THERE will soon be two general trade routes around Asia. The modern-day inland Silk Road will begin in Xi’an in Northwest China — the same starting point as the ancient route. It will stretch through Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, before crossing into Kazakhstan. This revitalized trade network will then run southwest from Central Asia to northern Iran before swinging west through Iraq and Turkey. From Istanbul, it will branch northwest through Europe, finally intersecting at the other proposed trade route — the Maritime Silk Road. This sea trading route will begin in Fujian Province in East China and head south to the Malacca Strait. It will then cross the Indian Ocean to Nairobi, Kenya, before heading north to the Mediterranean. The fundamental idea is to boost regional interaction. The total trade volume between China and all the other nations along both routes was over US$1 trillion in 2013 — roughly a quarter of China’s total trade. Between 2003 and 2013, that total trade volume grew by an average of 19 percent year-on-year — significantly faster than the growth in Chinese trade with other parts of the world. These are the key areas that China wants to focus on. Various projects have already begun, including the re-launch of the China-Europe railway project. (Xinhua) |