New Silk Road: transport integration of ECO member countries

Revival of the Great Silk Road will make a huge contribution to the collective prosperity of ECO Member States that was repeatedly noted by the leaders of ECO Member States. The Silk Road should be the corridor of energy, trade, transport and communications. In this regard, the further deepening of integration in transport and communication of ECO Member States is the most important problem. Today the ECO region again has become in the center of interests of the leading countries of the world, the center of the revival of an open, progressive Islamic civilization and the birthplace of the Central Asian economic miracle. Due to its central geopolitical position, ECO and its individual members act as important bridge between this region and the other regions of the world. Integration in transport sphere is one of the priorities of ECO cooperation at the regional level, which will facilitate trade in the region. Formation of the regional transport system was started in the framework of the ten-year ECO program of action in the field of transport and communications, which was adopted at the summit in May 1997 in Ashgabat. In 1998, in Almaty, by the ECO members was signed a framework agreement about transit transport of goods and passengers. In addition, there were formed committees, working groups and programs for the various transportation sectors, including rail, road, sea transport, civil aviation, transportation and communication, and multimodal transport. But despite the activities carried out by ECO members the problem of undeveloped transport communication system in the ECO region is still actual. This fact restrains the growth of intra-regional trade. The basis of transport system in the ECO region is railways, carries for more than 80% of freight and 50% of passenger traffic. That’s why the important direction of cooperation is the modernization and development of this sector. Analysis of the activities of the other Asian integration groups showed that the cooperative institutions contribute to the development of the economies of the Member States. Therefore integration cooperation should be strengthened by combining the efforts of the Central Asian states for solutions of regional problems.-Method of mapping and analysis of the shortest routes, which will determine the further development of transport corridors; -Scenario method, which will determine the possible scenarios of transport corridors in the member countries of ECO. Recommendations -for the creation and development of efficient transport and communications system that provides reliable communication with global transport corridors; -for the development of transit potential of the ECO region and extension of its export opportunities. In respect that many countries of Central Asia are the part of free trade zone within the CIS, all of them have bilateral free trade agreement between themselves; the formation of a developed transport infrastructure within the ECO will promote transit trade that will lead to the modernization of the economies of ECO member states and increasing their competitiveness.