And the East is no longer red-- It is Muslim green.
China, Pakistan, Kirghizstan, and Kazakhstan signed a customs agreement to reopen the old "silk road," giving China and Pakistan unprecedented access to ex-soviet Central Asia. FY EO #400 22 July 1996.
Now, look at that. The egghead scholars and Reformed skeptics have for years questioned the whole Asian ans Far Eastern world launching an army of 200,000,000 men against blip. Does this move stir memories of prophetic things? Also, note please that the "silk road" is a Muslim road. There are 70 million+ Muslims in Western China. That means a commercial road from China to JerBliplem is now in place in the name of Allah. If that does not stir you a bit, then I suggest you go see a doctor. You may be brain dead.
Here is an official proposal from the: International Road
Federation
This organization is based in Geneva, Switzerland and is organized in a carbon copy United Nations format.
Silk Road:
Rehabilitating the road infrastructure between China and Europe
THE IRF PROJECT is to revive the Infrastructural aspects of a transcontinental highway link between Europe and the Far-East to help revitalize Central Asia.
The idea of a Silk Road's revival is gaining ground in politics; infrastructural aspects are however so far overlooked.
Trafic is quickly rising between Europe and China - it usually goes by sea. Central Asia countries, saddled with a lack of road capacity, are not yet in a position to offer an inland alternative.
A modern highway link between all these areas could easily reach a potential trafic volume of 5 to 15'000 vehicles per day (i.e. approx. USD 2 to 4 bn yearly turnover) if charged at a rather low Blipge fee (USD 2 per 100 km for a private car and USD 10 for a lorry).
But the existing roads on the main demand axis - going from Turkey through Iran, Turkmenistan, Usbekistan, Kazakstan, Kirgystan up to China - do not match either existing or anticipated traffic levels.
There is an estimated USD 10 to 20 bn need to finance rehabilitation or capacity extension of nearly 5'500 kms of roads (total: 9000 kms), which could be more than recovered within a concession duration of 10 to 20 years.
In view of these potentially favourable cost and benefit prospects - the International Road Federation proposes a 2-step project scheme for the Silk Road:
SILK ROAD - pilot study (1995-2000): an international steering committee composed of national, financial, technical working groups shall lead following activities: mapping demand itineraries, harmonizing road standards, clearing trade and political uncertainties, toll introduction and collection through regional risk-capital operators, first maintenance and capacity investments, creation of statistical tools. building and operating the SILK ROAD link (2000-2010): a semi-private transnational corporation could be created from the pilot study - entities. The main tasks shall be to guarantee a reasonable profitability level to investors and an optimum service grade to users.
The experience shows that both results are complementary to each other and best achieved when a single operating company manages both financial and marketing aspects in a long term view.
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