Pushed by a desire to revive the old Silk Route and establish cost-effective speedier links with the outside world for the export of its merchandise, China has founded its rail links with Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Spain, and Germany.

The first cargo train from the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu pulled in Hairatan, northern Afghanistan, via Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, early September this year. The train, carrying goods worth more than $4 million, such as fabric, clothes and construction material, took just two weeks to arrive at Hairatan from Yiwu, which it left on August 28, 2016. A single trip is 7,500km long and takes half the time (15 days) needed for maritime transportation. The Chinese city of Yiwu is home to the world’s leading small commodities market.

Afghan and Chinese officials believe that Yiwu-Hairatan sector can serve as the best route for the transportation of cargo between the two countries. Initially, the freight trains are expected to carry 45 containers of goods twice a month from the eastern China to Hairatan. Once inside Afghanistan, the goods will be transported to Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan’s second biggest commercial centre near the border with Uzbekistan, through an extended 75 kilometres railway built in 2010 with the Asian Development Bank funding. Mazar-e-Sharif also serves as a logistics hub for the entire Middle East. Leaders of the two countries expect the new route to help upgrade trade cooperation between China and the region.

According to Afghan officials, the opening of the railway-route will give a great boost to their $600 million export industry, including shipments of saffron, marble, lapis lazuli and high quality Kurk wool. The service is expected to run on a weekly basis by the end of this year.

China can also benefit tremendously from the new rail route as it is being described as the best option for transporting copper from Afghanistan to China. While the Metallurgical Corporation of China received a licence in 2007 to mine the biggest Afghan copper deposit, China National Petroleum Corporation won a contract in 2011 to drill for oil in Afghanistan.

The cargo train between Yiwu-Hairatan is China’s fifth cargo train linking Yiwu to Europe or Asia, according to a China Daily report. Cargo train routes already in service connect Yiwu with many countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, and Spain.

In addition to these train routes, China and Germany are operating the world’s longest cargo train transport system, stretching over 11,000 kilometres from China to Europe. These longest cargo trains leave Germany (Europe) for different destinations in China and vice-versa, several times a week, to transport auto components from Leipzig in Germany to Shenyang in China, where an automobile concern manufactures vehicles for the Chinese market.

This 11,000 kilometres long extremely challenging transport chain across four borders, with two changes of rail gauge, has proven to be very stable and reliable. These trains reach their destination in historic Manchuria in 23 days, about half of the time which is normally required for ocean transport.

Recognizing the advantages of land route from China to Europe, some other industries have been transporting computer monitors and notebooks from Chongqing in China to Central Europe.

The rail route is benefitting from the fact that the Chinese metropolis on the Yangtze River, with a population of 30 million, is 2,000 kilometres from the nearest Chinese seaports. Consequently, rail transport has a geographical advantage over conventional ocean transport. Unlike the automobile transports to China, these transports do not travel on the Trans-Siberian railway, but along a shorter southern route via Kazakhstan.

The Go-West initiative has resulted in rapid developments in Chongqing and the metropolis continues to grow much faster than the Chinese economy as a whole. In order to make the city more attractive, Chongqing is keenly interested in establishing direct land transport connection to various destinations in Europe.

For setting-up and development of rail container transport service between Chongqing and West Europe and between Chongqing and Russia, a joint venture Yuxinou (Chongqing) Logistics Company Limited was established in April, 2012. The Chongqing Transportation Holding (Group) and the state railways of China, Kazakhstan and Russia are all involved in the venture along with DB Schenker of Germany.

In the middle ages, camel caravans carried merchandise, travelling on the Silk Route which connected China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asian Republics (CARs) and Europe. In his book, ‘A History of Civilization,’ Fernand Braudel writes: "The Silk Route was run by the same tribesmen who are the truck drivers of today. According to him, a camel caravan might consist of five or six thousand camels, its total capacity equalling that of a very large merchant ship. It travelled like army, with a leader, a gravels staff, strict rules, compulsory staging posts and routine precautions against marauding nomads. The silk route influenced Europe almost as much as the Arab conquerors, for those caravans transported not just luxury goods, but also ideas, religion, new weapons and scientific discoveries."

But, CARs’ occupation by the Czarist Russia in the 19^th century and Britain’s colonisation of the South Asian Sub-Continent earlier had disrupted the age old cultural, historical and commercial bonds that existed between these regions. Following Soviet Union’s implosion in 1991 and emergence of CARs, Central Asia witnessed an upsurge in international prominence in marked contrast to its neglect under the Soviet rule as a faraway, godforsaken place of no serious interest to anyone.

A number of outside powers (neighbouring states of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey as well as USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy, India, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Israel) became rapidly involved in influence building in the Central Asia. However, despite vast potential, at present, there is negligible trade between the countries located in Central Asia and South Asia mainly because of turbulence in Afghanistan, intra-region competition, trust deficit, unresolved political disputes, trade policies and poor state of infrastructure in some states.

Central Asia is a resource rich region, in particular in energy for which the growing economies of South Asia have a great appetite, while the latter possess a great potential to provide a range of products to meet the needs of CARs. The CARs also require access to sea for their growing trade, commerce and industry and the nearest ports to them are the Pakistani ports of Karachi and Gawadar, which are barely a thousand mile away. The CARs are just 16 hours by road from Pakistan, through Afghanistan.

Once, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) becomes operational, this time saving, convenient and economical access to the world can make the goods of South Asian states, CARs and western China (Xinjiang) more competitive in the global markets. However, the regional countries would be able to fully exploit their potential for trade only when they are able to stifle the strife in Afghanistan and the unrest in some pockets of northern Pakistan and Balochistan province. Some quarters believe that the strife in these areas is the handiwork of forces who conceive economically robust China and the rising CARs as threats to their economies. Through some misguided elements or agent saboteurs, these inimical forces are striving to obstruct the revival of the Silk Route and Gawadar seaport’s likely benefits to the Afro-Asian economies.

While both Pakistan and China will be its major beneficiaries, the CPEC is expected to transform communication, economic and cultural landscape besides promoting shared progress and development not only for both the neighbouring countries but also of the countries in the region and beyond.

By the end of March, this year, the under-construction CPEC projects provided direct employment to over 6,000 people in Pakistan while these projects are also creating indirect employment and growth opportunities. Likewise, these projects are also creating more employment and growth opportunities for China. For that very reason, Pakistani and Chinese officials call the CPEC projects to be a ‘win-win situation’ for both the countries.

In a recent report, the media has reported the Assistant Minister for International Department of the Communist Party of China (IDCPC) Central Committee, Li Jun as having said that China was ready to help Pakistan become the next Asian tiger by implementing CPEC effectively.