By DAILY SABAH WITH ANADOLU AGENCY

A 136-year-old dream of locals in Turkey's Rize province has come true as light is seen at the end of the Mount Ovit Tunnel. The tunnel is expected to ease the life of people in the region while contributing to trade

With the dual-drilling projects at Mount Ovit Tunnel between Turkey's Rize and Erzurum completed, a 136-year-old dream of the locals has been realized at long last. Marking the occasion, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım on Friday attended a ceremony titled "Light at the End of the Tunnel."

The highway tunnel will connect Rize's İkizdere district and Erzurum's İspir district in northeastern Turkey and is expected to reinvigorate the historic Silk Road. Once finished, the 14.3-kilometer structure is going to be the longest highway tunnel in Turkey.

Following the completion of the excavation work at an altitude of 2,640 meter, businessmen in the region focused on the tunnel's potential contributions to trade. Cemal Şengel, chairman at Eastern Anatolian Exporters' Association (DAİB), told Anadolu Agency (AA) that Mount Ovit Tunnel will be the most important route connecting eastern Turkey to ports. In reference to the significance of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars high-speed railway project, Şengel said when connected to other road projects the tunnel will help an uninterrupted link between the Silk Road and the Ural Mountains. Underscoring that logistics is the most important factor in trade he said the completion of this logistical network will help revive Erzurum and realize its full potential.

Tunnel expected to facilitate freight shipment to neighboring countries

Şengel further added the projects will make Erzurum a warehouse and storage hub, as Mount Ovit Tunnel, connected to ports, will facilitate freight shipment to neighboring countries. Defining the tunnel as an important investment for the developing region, Şengel noted that they have always supported such investments.

He extended his thanks to the government for the project, saying the tunnel, coupled with the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars high-speed railway project, will make the historic Silk Road more advantageous than ever.

"As the people of this region, now we need to build the infrastructure for such investments, including logistical warehouses and storages."

According to Şengel, a state sponsored "freight village" is being built on Erzurum's Mount Palandöken. This will enable Erzurum to gain the status of being the heart of the east. The will also contribute to the development of tourism, he said

Meanwhile, Erzurum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ETSO) Chairman Lütfü Yücelik said that transport projects launched in the recent years will boost trade volume both in the city and throughout the region.

According to Yücelik, especially after Mount Ovit and Mount Kop tunnels are completed, Eastern Anatolia and Erzurum will get connected to foreign markets through ports.

"As long as we can produce export commodities, and fully take advantage of these projects, the region will have no problems with immigration and employment and will be an attractive business center," he said.

He as well pointed out the introduction of the Palandöken freight village, and hoped, once integrated into these projects it will further increase Erzurum's logistical importance.Yücelik claiming the Mount Ovit and Mount Kop tunnels were two crucial projects for the development of trade, said, "We hope Erzurum will regain its status as an important trade hub like it was in the old days, thanks to these major transport projects."

Features of Mount Ovit Tunnel

The tunnel, which will connect Rize to Eastern Anatolia, is 14,300 meters long, including a cover avalanche tunnel of 1,369 meters. The entrance grade of the tunnel will be 1,919 meters, exit grade will be 2,236 meters, and the inside slope of the tunnel will be 2.13 percent. A 1,710-meter approach tunnel with a 15-percent slope is being constructed for the ventilation of the tunnel, which is being built as twin tubes and will cost TL 800 million. With the launching of the tunnel, transportation between the Black Sea and Eastern Anatolia, which is adversely affected by heavy snow and dangers of avalanche, will be uninterrupted and safe in winter. With its completion, the 250-kilometer Rize-Erzurum highway will be reduced to just 200 kilometers.

The China sponsored ‘One Belt One Road’(OBOR) project has caught India by surprise, said Srikanth Kondappally, Professor of Chinese Studies, JNU.

Delivering the valedictory address at the conference on ‘India, China and the new Silk Road Initiatives’ organised by the Mahatma Gandhi University, Prof. Kondappally said while the proposed global scale of the projects connecting Europe, Asia and Africa could provide an opportunity for expanding trade and investments it also challenged the national security of the country as the projects are passing through the India-claimed Kashmir regions currently held by Pakistan.

OBOR projects, if pursued vigorously are expected to connect the ‘heartland’ with the ‘rim land through continental and maritime routes and thus at one stroke make the rising China indispensable in the calculations of any country in the region, he said.

For India, regional and global leadership issues are also a consideration in the OBOR initiative. On the other hand, India also has its own initiative of Project Mausam of reviving commercial and cultural linkages with the Indian Ocean region and beyond, he noted.

Kandaswami Subramanian from Chennai Centre for China Studies, said that the global economic crisis leading to the collapse of exports has fuelled the rebalancing in China.

The earlier economic model had created excess capacity in major sectors like steel, transport, cement, metals. These excess capacities coupled with the management capability of Chinese public and private firms beg for opportunities abroad. These arrangements also seek to challenge the U.S. hegemony and the threat posed through its ‘Pivot Asia’ and TPP negotiations to dislodge China.

Another dimension of the OBOR may be related to China’s ‘going out’ policy, i.e. outward investment, beginning with the turn of this century.

M.J. Vinod, Professor, University of Bangalore, cautioned that while the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) is exclusively economic in orientation, yet it could still have strategic implications for India.

Though India cannot ignore the new Asian order that is fast emerging, the onus also lies on China in assuaging India’s concerns pertaining to the MSR.

K.B. Usha of the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, JNU, pointed out that Chinese logistical initiative has expanded after the Ukraine crisis sharing the vision of Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

Russia-China strategic partnership is thus growing, she said. Raju A. Thadikkaran, former director, ICCS, chaired the valedictory session.

‘It will connect the ‘heartland’ with the ‘rim land through continental and maritime routes.’

Source : The Hindu

Le premier conteneur chargé lors de l'inauguration en grande pompe du nouveau corridor commercial reliant le port pakistanais de Gwadar et la ville chinoise de Kashgar, à Gwadar, le 13 novembre 2016.

REUTERS/Caren Firouz

Pour la première fois, une cargaison de 150 conteneurs venus de Chine a été embarquée dimanche 13 novembre à bord d'un navire au port de Gwadar au Pakistan. C'était l'inauguration du corridor économique sino-pakistanais, un vaste projet évalué à 46 milliards de dollars.

Le corridor économique entre la Chine et le Pakistan s'étend de la ville de Kashgar, au Xinjiang, jusqu'au port de Gwadar ouvrant sur le golfe Persique et le détroit d’Ormuz.

Long de 2 000 kms, empruntant l'une des branches de l'antique route de la soie, il permet à la Chine de réduire de 10 000 km le transport de ses exportations de marchandises vers le Moyen-Orient. Il rend également la Chine moins dépendante des routes maritimes passant par le détroit de Malacca pour ses importations de pétrole du Moyen-Orient.

Pour le Pakistan, ce projet de liaisons routières, ferroviaires, oléoducs et réseaux de communications constitue un apport massif d'investissements chinois jusqu’en 2031 que d'aucuns ont comparé à un plan Marshall.

Mais le port de Gwadar se situe au Baloutchistan, la plus vaste et la plus pauvre des provinces pakistanaises, et elle est régulièrement agitée par des violences séparatistes ou islamistes. Tel l'attentat-suicide qui a eu lieu samedi dans un sanctuaire soufi. Les autorités pakistanaises se sont engagées à mettre en place les forces de sécurité nécessaires.

by Bruce Pannier / Source Radio Free Europe

China’s massive One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project aims to connect the world like never before, using land and sea routes to form trade links across Asia and Europe and down to Africa. It’s an extremely ambitious project that will take many years to realize but already OBOR has many people excited about the economic possibilities to come.

Among the billions of people who could benefit immensely from OBOR are the roughly 65 million residents of Central Asia. But being part of OBOR is not necessarily a guarantee for a better future.

To look at OBOR in Central Asia, and some of the potential advantages and disadvantages, RFE/RL assembled a Majlis, or panel, to review the situation.

Moderating the discussion was RFE/RL Media Relations Manager Muhammad Tahir. From Exeter University in the U.K., senior lecturer and Central Asian expert David Lewis joined the discussion. From Geneva, journalist, researcher, and native of Kyrgyzstan Cholpon Orozobekova, who has written for the Jamestown Foundation and The Diplomat took part. I was just back from Washington, New York, and the CESS conference at Princeton and was raring to go, so I pitched in a few comments also.

As Lewis mentioned at the start of the Majlis, the numbers for OBOR are genuinely unprecedented -- $1 trillion of investment with routes potentially reaching some 44 countries with more than half the population of the planet. And, as Lewis pointed out, “This being the initiative of [Chinese President] Xi Jinping, it’s something that the Chinese leadership is committed to and it does involve significant funding for Central Asia in particular, and of course, governments, at least in Central Asia, are very enthusiastic about funding flowing into major infrastructure projects.”

OBOR has already started in Central Asia. Lewis recalled the oil pipeline from Kazakhstan, the natural gas pipelines from Turkmenistan, and a road network from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan already lead to China.

These projects and others were started, and some completed, before the autumn of 2013 when Beijing first articulated the OBOR project. As Orozobekova reminded, “In 2013, trade between China and the five Central Asian states was $50 billion already, while, for example, trade between Russia and these [Central Asian] countries was only $30 billion.”

That trend has only become stronger as Russia’s economy has weakened, limiting Russian investment potential. China, meanwhile, has continued to vigorously pursue OBOR. In February this year, the first cargo train from China arrived in Iran after passing through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan along new railways in the latter two countries. In September, the first train from China to Afghanistan arrived after crossing through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

According to the plan, the part of the route that runs through Central Asia should continue west through northern Iran into Turkey. Central Asia could benefit greatly from this new route for shipping goods to, and receiving goods from countries with access to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea.

But already parts of Central Asia are seeing some of the negative aspects that come with these Chinese-funded projects.

“In Central Asia there are some concerns regarding the flow of migrants from China,” Lewis said. He explained: “Typically Chinese companies like to use their own people, bring in Chinese labor to get a job done. It’s often very effective but it doesn’t always give people local jobs and employ local specialists.”

That has led to problems in the oil fields of western Kazakhstan where Chinese employees work, in mining areas in Kyrgyzstan where Chinese employees work, and along various parts of the roads being constructed in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan where locals work alongside Chinese workers. Sometimes the problems are caused by rumors of the Chinese receiving better wages, sometimes the lack of the locals’ ability to communicate with the Chinese workers has led to fights.

Chinese farmers are also tending agricultural land in Tajikistan vacated by local farmers who left to find work in Russia. A proposal to lease farmland in Kazakhstan earlier this year sparked the largest protests seen there in some 20 years, when rumors spread that Chinese farmers would lease portions of Kazakhstan’s farmland.

Orozobekova said, “In Central Asia there are some concerns regarding the flow of migrants from China.”

Additionally, while Chinese workers are coming to Central Asia, Lewis said, “China just doesn’t offer that kind of labor migration, there’s no real option to go to China to work.” So Central Asia’s migrant laborers continue to mainly go to Russia.

And there are also environmental concerns. Chinese companies do not have a good track record when it comes to ecological considerations. Lewis explained, “In Kyrgyzstan and in Tajikistan recently, new cement plants developed by China are notoriously polluting industries and can have a really negative effect on local people.” Refineries in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan built or operated by Chinese companies have also received complaints from local administrations and residents.

Orozobekova also pointed out for Kyrgyzstan, OBOR is a competitor project. She said many in Kyrgyzstan “are overwhelmed with the EEU, the Eurasian Economic Union.” The EEU is the Russian-led organization that also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan officially joined in August 2015. Orozobekova said, “When it comes to OBOR and the EEU there’s a little bit of a clash between them because currently, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan joined the EEU with Russia [and] there are so many problems within this organization [EEU].”

And Orozobekova reminded that since 1998, Kyrgyzstan is also a member of the World Trade Organization, so officials in Bishkek must do some furious juggling to try to simultaneously meet the regulations of all these organizations.

And Lewis noted, “We know there’s a slowdown going on in the Chinese economy and so these very ambitious plans, which require a lot of funding, may be more difficult than was considered.”

OBOR is a thick topic, and one the Majlis will address again in the near future. Participants in this latest Majlis session explored more deeply the benefits and detriments of being one of the first sections of OBOR, including potential security problems, now and in the future.

An audio recording of the discussion can be heard at:

By Christine Chou, The China Post

Yulin, China -- Many municipalities in China are facing the double struggle of curbing coal output and filling the economic void left by closed mines.

But a coal-rich city in the country's northwest is diversifying in attempt to revive its economy — turning to tourism, agriculture and alternative energy.

Located on the northern tip of Shaanxi province, Yulin has become a poster child for the country's attempts to move away from an economic reliance on mineral resources.

The city has been lauded by the national media as a consummate example of economic transformation.

Deputy Mayor Zhang Haifeng said Yulin was aiming to become "one of the most important cities along the Silk Road."

Zhang was referring to the ancient Silk Road trade route, consisting of a string of cities across Central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The route is enjoying a contemporary revival with backing from China's central government.

The new "Silk Road Economic Belt," along with the "Maritime Silk Road" sea route, forms the "One Belt, One Road" initiative started by the China's central government in 2013.

The ambitious plan seeks to adapt the links of the historical Silk Road, and solve the country's domestic overcapacity by improving trade connections with Eurasia.

The history of Yulin comes to the fore when one takes a walk down the streets in the city's downtown, where local snack vendors dot alleys crammed with centuries-old buildings.

A traditional bakery sells hard, dry bread that requires incredible effort to bite into. Our local guide said this durable food had been popular with merchants passing through the city had, as it could last for weeks during the long, dusty journey ahead.

Chinese Kuwait

The discovery of large-scale mineral deposits in the 1980s dramatically changed the face of Yulin.

Zhang said Yulin was known as the "Kuwait of China" given its abundance of gas and coal fields.

The deputy mayor said the city had been "a key area in Shaanxi since ancient times because of its strategic position."

He added that Yulin continued to be an "important city in the nation's 'One Belt, One Road' initiative."

During the city's 11th International Coal and Energy Expo in September, a record-breaking 101 domestic and overseas deals were made with a combined value of 119.7 billion yuan — the highest in history, according to the government.

Local officials seem confident the city will cash in on its cultural capital. With help from the new opportunities provided by central government initiatives, they hope to expand the city into an international hub for the energy and chemical industries.

Turning to Tourism

Yulin's municipal government highlighted tourism and the cultural industries as key development areas.

"We will speed up progress in building up key tourist attractions, improve services offered to foreign visitors and create a unique tourism brand for Yulin," said Zhang.

Head of the tourism bureau Cui Yuan expressed confidence that Yulin's cultural heritage would attract tourists.

As part of these tourism efforts, Yulin was planning to renovate and upgrade its airport and offer flights to more destinations, Cui said.

Biennials in country’s Muslim-majority regions coincide with cultural exchange with Qatar

by LISA MOVIUS

China is increasingly engaging with countries with mainly Muslim populations through cultural exchanges as its government champions the creation of a new, economic “Silk Road”. Two biennials opened this autumn in the country’s far-flung western regions, which are the respective homelands of China’s two largest Muslim minorities, the Turkic Uyghurs and the more assimilated Hui. Meanwhile, the 11th Shanghai Biennale, which is due to open on 11 November (until 12 March 2017), features an unprecedented number of international artists from Muslim countries, even though China’s own Muslim minorities remain marginalised.

The third Xinjiang International Art Biennale was organised by the ministry of culture of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Urumqi (8-31 October). Featuring folk and popular art, which reflect official preferences, it contrasts starkly with the global contemporary approach of the first Yinchuan Biennale (until 18 December) at the new, private MoCA Yinchuan, in the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Urumqi and Yinchuan are stops on China’s ancient Silk Road, the overland trade route that led to the mostly Muslim countries to China’s west. Their biennials coincide with an increase in China’s cultural engagement with neighbouring countries and the Middle East. For example, Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art is currently showing Treasures of China (until 7 January), including terracotta warriors from Xi’an—the start of the Silk Road—as part of the official Qatar-China Year.

The cultural exchange with Qatar is part of China’s massive One Belt, One Road Initiative, championed by president Xi Jinping as a way to counteract slowing domestic growth. The Chinese government aims to develop new markets to China’s west and south.

Official cultural exchanges under One Belt, One Road’s auspices now abound, such as a thematic section of the 18th China Shanghai International Arts Festival (until November 15), featuring projects from Qatar and Egypt. Unofficially, such events may encourage institutions in coastal China to show more work by contemporary artists from Muslim-majority countries. However, there are no indicators that state scrutiny of unofficial shows will relax. Other Gallery Shanghai’s March 2011 group exhibition The Third Eye, which featured works by nine Iranian artists, was closed after the Iranian consulate complained to the Chinese authorities about its content.

Religious and political taboos

In the past two decades artists from across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa have rarely been shown in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, partly because politics and religion, major themes in contemporary art from these regions, are major taboos in China. Meanwhile, negative stereotypes of the Hui, Uyghurs and foreign Muslims remain common among Han Chinese. “It is impossible to attract publicity and visitors without famous artists’ works in a show. Chinese art museums are still early in their evolution, and well-known Islamic artists are very few,” says MoCA Yinchuan director Liu Wenjin. “I will not use Islamic identity to promote artists­—their background is incidental to whether their art can move the audience.” She blames Chinese audiences’ hesitancy towards art from the Islamic world on sensationalist media reports.

While Chinese institutions and collectors are often uninterested in, or wary of, contemporary art from countries with mainly Muslim populations, the Shanghai Biennale will feature work by artists including Beiruit-based, Iraqi-American Rheim Alkadhi and Indonesia’s Agan Harahap. The show, which is organised by Raqs Media Collective, founded by three New Delhi-based artists, stresses “south-south co-operation”.