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The Great Silk Road was once a road of modernization, today it is reviving and entails a new wave of modernization to strengthen trade contacts and connectivity of markets, said the director of the Center for Strategic Studies of the IMO of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, speaking at the Forum of Analytical Centers "China - Central Asia".

The Forum, which is being held in this format for the third time, gathered experts from five countries of the Central Asian region and China in Xi'an. Its second day, on September 22, opened with a thematic session "Modernization in diverse civilizations". The head of the Turkmen Center for Strategic Studies, revealing this topic, focused on such an aspect of it as transport interconnectedness in the modern era.

He began with the fact that since ancient times Xi'an and Turkmen Merv were connected by the caravan roads of the Great Silk Road. Since then, many civilizational generations have changed, and the modernization of the economies of countries has somehow taken place through trade. And for a sustainable process of trade relations, roads are needed – reliable and branched.

Based on the fact that international transport corridors, transcontinental economic ties are able to stabilize not only the geo-economic situation, but also the geopolitical situation, Turkmenistan takes international initiatives on sustainable transport at the most authoritative international forums, including from the high rostrum of the UN, Shiri Shiriev stressed.

At the same time, a lot of systematic work is being carried out in Turkmenistan to improve the technical level of the transport system, attract investments and highly efficient technologies to improve the quality of transport services, including transit transportation. Turkmenistan supports joint efforts for better planning, development and modernization of the regional transport system, further harmonization of technical standards, and improvement of the legal framework.

In order to accelerate the pace of digitalization and electronic data exchange, our country aims to exchange best practices, theoretical knowledge and practical developments that ensure the growth of regional connectivity, training of employees of industry departments, increasing the scientific and technical component of interaction.

The introduction of a Single Window mechanism for paperless trade and electronic document management, harmonization of transportation documents and tariff policy, simplification of customs formalities contributes to the improvement of the transport sector of Turkmenistan, as a transit country along the East–West and North–South vector, in the innovative industry.

Thus, Turkmenistan has made some progress in the implementation of express systems at all border crossings and is moving towards full digitalization of transport operations and services. Further investments in software infrastructure – automated cargo tracking systems, electronic documents and online platforms – will speed up cargo handling.

Undoubtedly, the active participation of all interested parties and strategic cooperation of our states will contribute to the development of the transport and logistics sector of the Asia-Pacific region, the geo-economic center of which is China, improving transportation conditions and unlocking the full potential of the international transport corridors of the region, where the epicenter of the world cargo flow is now shifted, Shiriev said.

In his opinion, the development of a roadmap for the deployment of sustainable intelligent transport systems will allow market players to take full advantage of the geo-economic and geopolitical advantages of Turkmenistan and the entire Central Asian region.

Now the importance of Central Asia is growing in the system of international relations due to the presence of large reserves, especially energy resources, geographical and other advantages.

In addition, it is no coincidence that the Turkmen project "Revival of the Great Silk Road", designed to give a powerful impetus to the economic development of Eurasia, is closely interrelated in its philosophy and geo–economic content with the all-Chinese project "One Belt, One Road".

The multilateral transport and transit projects that have already been implemented and are in operation coincide with the interests of the China-Central Asia cooperation format. As time and the realities of life have shown, today this format is one of the most famous, authoritative, with huge prospects for development.

In these conditions, the existence of objective mutual interests of the Central Asian countries and China on a practical basis opens up additional opportunities for modernization and increasing the pace of effective cooperation. It is the "China–Central Asia" format that has been and remains an important factor in the stable development of the region since its appearance as a specific body for the comprehensive rapprochement of our countries, Shiri Shiriyev summed up.

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