| |
Iran stakes a claim to the Silk
Road
By Hooman Peimani
Iran,
positioned at the crossroads of the 7,000-mile Silk
Road, the ageless trading track between China and the
West, has embarked on a variety of transport and other
projects to reconstruct, revitalize, expand and
diversify its economy to become the epicenter of
Asia-
Middle East trade.
These diverse projects
mainly seek to capitalize on Iran's rich resources or on
its geographical location. They aim at returning Iran to
its traditional role in expanding trade between Europe
and Asia and making it a trade powerhouse. As such,
their determination has strategic and economic
significance for shippers and traders not just across
Asia to Europe, the traditional end of the Silk Road,
but all along the Arabian Peninsula, to India and the
Mediterranean Sea as well.
Apart from many
under-construction highways and ports, railway
construction reflects the determination of the Iranians
to achieve their objective. The country is now setting a
Middle East record for railway construction. Mohammad
Saeednejad, managing director of the Islamic Republic
Railways, said on Monday that, on average, "500
kilometers of railways have been laid in the country
annually" since 2000. Currently they are laying 3,300
kilometers of track, including the 1,000 kilometer
Bafq-Mashhad line, which, once finished, will cut by
about 900 kilometers the existing track distance
connecting Turkmenistan and the entire Central Asia to
the Persian Gulf via the Tajan-Mashhad-Bandar Abbas
line.
Bandar Abbas is a well-developed Iranian
port through which a growing amount of international
cargo transaction is conducted. Another major line is a
400 kilometer line connecting the Caspian Sea to the
Persian Gulf through the Tehran-Bandar Abbas line. Apart
from their position as the main connecting ports between
Iran and Russia, the Iranian Caspian Sea ports are
becoming increasingly important for their role in
expanding regional and international trade between the
Caucasus, Central Asia and Russia.
Iran has an
advanced land transportation infrastructure, the result
of extensive investment since the early 1960s. Various
high-quality, well-kept highways connect its major
trading, mining and industrial regions to each other as
well as to neighboring countries, but that includes few
railways. Its main lines stretch less than 10,000
kilometers, extremely inadequate for a vast country of
1.64 million square kilometers. Especially since its
major ports are along its 2,500 kilometer coastline with
the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea in the south and most
of its populous and industrial regions are in the north.
Apart from Iran's plan to expand its
international trade, this rapid transport development is
also part of a plan to expand economic relations with
the newly-independent neighboring Central Asian and
Caucasian countries, and also with its main regional
partner, Russia.
In particular, Iran's efforts
to turn itself into the major transit route for the
landlocked Central Asian countries as well as for the
two landlocked Caucasian states, Azerbaijan and Armenia,
require connecting road and railroads as well as
expanding its domestic land transportation network. The
idea of restoring the ancient Silk Road by connecting
China's roads and railroads to Europe via its
neighboring Central Asia and through Iran is another
part of its ambition to expand trade.
Yet
another factor has been Iran's membership in the
Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). Formed by Iran,
Turkey and Pakistan in the 1980s, the ECO was
revitalized when five Central Asian countries,
Afghanistan and Azerbaijan, joined it after the Soviet
Union's fall. Iran's geography makes it the natural link
among all these countries, which are its neighbors or
which can access it through a land neighbor
(Turkmenistan) or a sea neighbor (Kazakhstan) in the
case of three Central Asian countries (Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).
Finally, Iran's
joint project with India and Russia to offer an
alternative route for European-Asian trade to the one
via the Suez Canal has been a factor. Their land/sea
route is both shorter and cheaper.
To meet
growing domestic and regional/international demand, Iran
is expanding and modernizing its land and sea
transportation networks to function as the main regional
connecting state for long-term trade routes. Within this
context, land transportation, and in particular railway
construction, is a priority.
Iran is also
building a 150 kilometer railroad connecting its eastern
Khorassan province with Afghanistan's Herat province,
through which it can access other parts of Afghanistan.
Since that country borders Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,
Iran can also access those Central Asian countries by a
shorter link than the current one through Turkmenistan.
To that end, last June Iran signed trilateral
agreements with each country and Afghanistan. Given
Afghanistan's shared border with China, Iran is also
considering offering its route to the Chinese in search
of a shortcut for their trade with the Middle East and
Europe for which highways and railways would be
required.
Iran's plans include connecting the
Iranian railway network to Iraq and to its neighboring
Syria, which would begin after the completion of
Bafq-Mashhad, according to Saeednejad. That rail link
would enable the Iranians to access the Mediterranean
through an alternative route to the existing Turkish
one, which is both long and expensive. There are also
political considerations arising from Turkey's close
ties with the United States and Israel.
It is
not clear if the rail track will pass through Iraq's
autonomous Kurdish region, which is on good terms with
Iran and which, at least theoretically, does not require
the American approval or through its non-Kurdish region
requiring that approval.
The expanding railway
network is creating a market for foreign suppliers, most
of which are struggling to survive. The troubled French
corporation Alestom has so far supplied 20 locomotives,
while 80 more will be assembled in Iran. China is now
selling 150 passenger wagons to Iran, although Iran's
Pars Wagon Manufacturing produces and exports wagons to
countries such as Syria.
Railway cargo handling
capacity is growing. According to Saeednejad, in the
first four months of the current Iranian year beginning
on March 21, Iranian cargo trains carried 10 million
tonnes of cargo and 342,000 tonnes of transit cargoes,
indicating, respectively, 17 percent and 40 percent
increases compared to the same period in the last year.
Nevertheless, the Iranian rail network requires rapid
expansion to meet growing domestic and international
demands, although the highway system compensates, to a
large extent, the former's limitation for the time
being.
Despite the shortcoming of their rail
system, evidence suggests that the Iranians are
determined to fully exploit their geographical location
as a major source of income, employment and economic and
political influence. If all the existing rail, road and
port projects are fully implemented, Iran will certainly
become a major transit route for the Asian-European
trade on its own merit.
Dr Hooman
Peimani works as an independent consultant with
international organizations in Geneva and does research
in international relations.
(Copyright 2003
Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
