Siberian Continental Bridge Expecting Second BoomThe Siberian Continental Bridge, the world's first Asia-Europe railway, should be upgraded to boost the cargo traffic of Northeast Asia, experts from Russia and the United States said recently on an international symposium held in China.The 10th International Conference on Peace and Development of Northeast Asia was held in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province. Experts and scholars from Canada, Russia, the United States and other countries met to discuss regional cooperation in Northeast Asia. Russian experts pointed out that the cargo traffic crossing the Siberian Continental Bridge has become negligible over the past decade. Until the end of 1998, transport volume of containers crossing the bridge did not exceed seven percent of its peak period. Tagir Khouziatov, a Russian expert on global economics, attributed the near-death of commercial transport on the bridge to the break up of the Soviet Union in early 1990s, after which there was no more macrocontrol from the Russian government on the country's transportation system, and the transportation fees soared. Elizabeth Wishnick, an American senior research fellow on east- west trade, said Russia had started to promote the link-up of the Siberian Continental Bridge with other railways last year. If the railway on the Korean Peninsula was connected, cargo could be sent to Europe directly, said Wishnick. Officially put into operation in 1967, the Siberian Continental Bridge used to be a major transportation channel connecting the Pacific Ocean, the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. When the marine transportation was blocked by the war between Iran and Iraq, the bridge earned hundreds of millions of US dollars for the then Soviet Union annually. Another Asia-Europe bridge, dubbed "the new Silk Road" stretching 10,900 kilometers, starts from east China's Lianyungang port and goes west to northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, then on to central Asian countries and joins the railway network in central and southern Europe. Compared with the Siberian Continental Bridge, it is 3,000-km shorter and its transport fees are cheaper. |
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