October 18, 2003	Saturday	Sha'aban 21, 1424

TEHRAN: The Silk Road conjures up images of camel trains and turbaned merchants but Iran is reviving ancient spice routes and hopes once again to become the indispensable mercantile nexus between Europe and Asia.

Iran is pouring funds into roads, bridges and petrol stations in Afghanistan to reopen the well-trodden route that carried centuries of merchants from Europe to China.

But these schemes are hampered by regional lawlessness and Iran’s own dismal investment rating so, for the meantime, Iran’s new spin on the Silk Road focuses on a Caspian Sea to Gulf transit route aimed at stealing trade from the Suez Canal. Mehdi, 30, a cargo ship crewman, said he was staggered by the volume of goods racing between Iran’s north and south coasts.

“There’s so much more work coming in,” he said. “We used to shift mainly fuel — now it’s cars, machinery and everything you can think of.”

Iran’s officials are confident they can once again fill the caravanserais, or lodging houses of the Silk Road, with weary travellers by investing heavily in roads, railways and ports.

Mohammad Javad Atrchian, government director of this north-south transit corridor, said modern caravans ferrying goods from Asia to Europe slice 5,000 kms off the Suez Canal route by travelling across Iran.

He added the Iran route was also 20 to 30 per cent cheaper.

“Iran has the position to become the pivotal transit point between Europe and Asia and revive its position on the Silk Road,” he said.

Analysts said the idea of Iran as a vital transit route is a powerful political statement from a country that the United States has tried to isolate.

The United States has insisted transcontinental oil and gas pipelines meander huge distances in order to bypass Iran, labelled by Washington as a member of the so-called “axis of evil”.

“The more dependent people are on you, the more secure you are — this is true in terms of oil and transit routes,” said political analyst Hossein Rassam.

Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines has published statistics describing the potential scale of this economic dependence.

Its website on Iran’s 21st-century caravan trails says experts reckon the new Silk Roads can earn $5-6 billion each year in transit fees by ferrying about 20 million tons of goods.

“The authorities unanimously believe that Iran can rationally acquire four to five per cent of the $120 billion of transit trade exchanged between Asia and Europe,” the chamber adds.

A NEW ECONOMY: This income from transit trade is particularly alluring to an Iranian government trying to wean its economy off its dependence on finite reserves of hydrocarbons.

“The new Silk Road would help Iran diversify its mainly oil-dependent economy,” said independent analyst Hooman Peimani.

Widescale building and infrastructure projects are also enticing to a country with 16 per cent unemployment.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted Roads and Transport Minister Ahmad Khorram as saying Iran had upped road construction over the last four years from 100 to 500 kms per year.

Khorram made these remarks in the province of Khorasan that lies on the road that has carried generations of travellers to the carpet-weaving city of Herat in Afghanistan and then on to China’s teaming market places.

Most modern discussion on the new Silk Road focuses on the north-south corridor but resurrecting the land routes to China’s 1.3 billion-strong domestic market and fast-growing economy is also widely discussed by Iranian analysts and the media.—Reuters