From Asia to Europe: The New Trans-Siberian Railway
During a recent meeting of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the proposal for the development of a Trans-Eurasian corridor was presented. The idea stems from the fact that the axis connecting Vladivostok to Moscow covers one of the world's largest areas in terms of the potential for economic development and valorization. For decades the region was a poorly accessible, with a harsh climate to say the least, poorly urbanized and with a very low density of industrial settlements. Today, it represents a huge opportunity for territorial development, which could attract vast inflows of investment and population, provided it is equipped with the proper energy infrastructure (local reserves are immense and already effectively exploited) and telecommunications, and warrants the mobility of goods and people.
The backbone of the corridor would be provided by a high-speed rail freight link, the modern-day industrial equivalent of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Preliminary studies suggest that such mega-project could be competitive with the maritime transport of goods from the Far East to Europe occurring via container shipping around Africa or passing through the Suez Canal. Land transports along the new Trans-Siberian railway would take 3 to 4 days less than seafaring routes (it currently takes 17 days from Hong Kong or Shanghai to reach Rotterdam).
The project is based on a major geopolitical and geoeconomic idea: to connect East Asia and Europe overland at the expense of the development of the Pacific axis, which currently integrates China and the United States, by putting the development of Eurasian economic relations at the center of the global economy.
Ambitious as it is, such a project requires a high degree of interdependence and integration between infrastructures, building the development of industrial and residential settlements. The conditions for success primarily concern the innovative features of investment in fixed capital, and the development of new public services and forms of government (public-private partnerships for the management of economic development zones). In this sense, the whole area represents a great opportunity for experimentation and innovation on all fronts, which will have to be evaluated according to the effectiveness of investment in fostering economic, social, and institutional development.
A second element of quality to be tested is that of energy efficiency. The sheer abundance of fossil fuels in the Trans-Eurasian corridor must not lead to colossal waste. Higher efficiency in energy use, as well as in production and distribution, needs to be achieved. In addition, international experience shows that it is essential to provide unity of intent in the preparation and launching stages, by establishing an agency that gathers the international network of potential stakeholders, as well as by setting up a think-tank that supplies innovative ideas.
Finally, an essential component of the technical assistance that will accompany the project is the collection, processing, and evaluation of data and information needed to monitor its development. It is a task to be entrusted to university researchers – Bocconi is presently working in collaboration with Russian universities on this issue – in order to create a set of scientific and economic data to assist the project.