Endnotes

¹An earlier version of this paper was presented at the international conference on "Southern Silk Route: Historical Links and Contemporary Convergences" held in Kolkata (Calcutta), India from 2–5 August 2008, and at the international conference on "Building the Southwest Corridor of the Third Asia-Europe Continental Land Bridge" held in Beijing, the People's Republic of China, from 24–25 November 2008. The authors are grateful to conference participants for their useful comments.

²As of 2006, calculated based on World Development Indicators CD-ROM 2008 (World Bank, 2006).

³A good number of studies have dealt with Asia's trade potential in the contemporary period. Please refer, for example, to Armstrong, Drysdale, and Kalirajan (2008).

⁴A vast literature exists on the impact of infrastructure on trade and regional integration in Asia, (see ADB 2006a, 2006b; De 2005, 2006; Brooks and Menon 2008; Francois, Manchin, and Pelkmans-Balaoing 2009; Arnold 2009; and ADB 2009a). Most of these studies and reports indicate that lack of an integrated regional connectivity is one of the major constraints hindering regional trade, growth, and integration in Asia.

⁵According to De (2008b), a reduction in tariffs by 10% would increase bilateral trade by about 3–4% in Asia.

⁶For transport equipment, bilateral tariffs have a less significant role as trade is conducted as project goods that enjoy "duty free" market access (De 2008b).

⁷During this period, two further studies were done on the AH, one in 1996 and another in 2001 (UNESCAP 1996, 2001a).

⁸The full text of the AH Agreement is available from http://www.unescap.org/ttdw/common/tis/AH/AH-Agreement-E.pdf.

⁹Asian Highways are classified into 4 classes. Primary class refers to access-controlled highways. Class I refers to 4 or more lanes roads with asphalt or cement concrete pavement. Class II roads are 2 lanes roads paved with asphalt or cement. Class III roads are also 2 lanes roads, but with double bituminous treatment. Class III roads are regarded as the minimum desirable standard and upgrading of pavement to asphalt concrete or cement concrete is encouraged.

¹⁰The northern corridor was refined later through UNESCAP (1999).

¹¹The full text of the TAR Agreement is available from http://www.unescap.org/ttdw/common/TIS/TAR/TARintergovagreement.asp

¹²See, Appendix 2 for the list of countries signed the TAR.

¹³The Euro-Asian component was launched at the First Expert Group Meeting on Developing Euro-Asian Transport Linkages held from 9–11 March 2004 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

¹⁴Currently, there are 56 transport-related international legal instruments initiated by the ECE aimed at facilitating the movement of goods, people, and vehicles across international borders.

¹⁵For details of selected international conventions on transport facilitation including those contained in the resolution 48/11, see UNESCAP (2007).

¹⁶The Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) is a dialog forum among South American countries, which seeks to promote the development of transport, energy, and telecommunication infrastructure from a regional viewpoint, aimed at physical integration of the 12 South American countries and the achievement of an equitable and sustainable territorial development pattern. About US$69 billion, comprised of 514 infrastructure projects having direct or indirect cross-border implications, have been identified for investments across 12 Latin American countries, of which 51 projects amounting US$ 7.51 billion were already concluded as of December 2008 (IIRSA 2009).

¹⁷There has also been an attempt to foster regional cooperation centering Silk Road in the recent past. For example, the Silk Road Initiative (SRI) which is a regional UNDP (United Nations Development Program) programme that aims to enhance cooperation and development among the PRC, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It focuses on facilitating public private partnerships in three main areas: investment, trade and tourism. For further details, visit http://www.undp.org.cn

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