World Land-Bridge updates

Dec. 1, 2017 -In his opening remarks to the first session of the China-Latin America-Caribbean Business Summit (China-LAC 2017) in Punta del Este, Uruguayan President Tabare Vasquez set the tone for the day’s discussion when he identified China as “the champion of international trade and a motor of global economic growth.”

Speaking before approximately 3,000 attendees, Vasquez said that because of its growing trade, economic, political, scientific, and cultural ties to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), China now “occupies a central place in the affairs of Latin America and the Caribbean….[and] a central place in the future of the region.” That future, he underscored, “is not predetermined, but is rather built in the present, because the future can be shaped among us all, as no country, no matter its size, [defines] its fate by itself.”

The two-day event, which includes businessmen, government officials, policymakers, and other experts from all three regions, is unprecedented in its size and has generated enormous enthusiasm and debate about the prospect of Latin America joining the Belt and Road Initiative. In fact, today’s first plenary session discussed the vision for an alliance among the three regions, in the framework of the Belt and Road.

One indication of the policy discussion now underway was Vasquez’s report that “we have received and are evaluating an interesting Chinese proposal which includes audacious and transformative ideas” such as promoting a free trade zone between China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), which will be taken up in January at the group’s next annual conference in Santiago, Chile.

Other speakers at the opening session included Ma Peihua, Vice President of the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference, who said that China’s main goal is to establish cooperative associations with countries, especially to promote unity and collaboration with LAC countries, and push the world economy toward a more open and inclusive path that will offer universal benefits. China-LAC relations have now entered a “new historical phase,” he said, with good results. He recalled that over a period of four years, President Xi Jinping toured the LAC countries three times–the last time in 2016– strenghtening this relationship.

Nov. 29, 2017-The approximately 7,500-km transcontinental rail corridor from Port Sudan to Dakar, Senegal, on the Atlantic Ocean, was first proposed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in 2005. From its eastern terminal in Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, this northernmost transcontinental rail corridor is slated to cross Chad to its capital, NDjamena, then to Maiduguri and Kano in Nigeria, continuing to Niamey, Niger, to Bamako, Mali, to Senegal.

Agreements have already been made with China for the construction of two sections of this corridor, in Chad and in Sudan. On Nov. 7, 2017, the Sudanese Railways Authority signed an agreement for a feasibility study with two Chinese companies, China Railway Design Corporation (CRDC) and China Friendship Development International Engineering Design & Consultation Company (FDDC), to be completed in 12 months, to study the 3,400- km-long trans-Saharan Railway that would stretch from Port Sudan to the Sudanese city of Nyala, close to the Chadian border, and on to NDjamena. The lines are to be built to standard gauge and will allow trains to run at 120 km/h.

In March 2012, Chad reached an agreement with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to build the Chad portion of the rail line from NDjamena to the Sudanese border. In 2014, Sudan reached a political agreement with Chad to link their capitals with Port Sudan. There were to be later extensions to Atlantic Ocean ports in Cameroon, Douala (the biggest Atlantic port in Central Africa) and Kribi (the deepest Atlantic port in Central Africa). Rebel activities in Chad have prevented these proposals from being implemented up to now. The construction of the Kribi deep sea port was financed by China.

Nov. 14 – On Nov. 12, the second China-Russia crude oil pipeline project, which took only 456 days to build, was finally completed, Asia Times reported, citing a report from the Chinese publication 21st Century Business Herald. Built by those countries’ two biggest oil producers, China National Petroleum Corp. and Rosneft, the 940 km pipeline from Mohe to Daqing, both in Heilongjiang, will have an annual capacity of 15 million tons. According to the planned volume of pipeline transportation between China and Russia, after the completion of construction, Russian oil transported to China’s northeast by land-based crude oil pipelines will double from 15 million tons to 30 million tons per year.

The first oil pipeline of the China-Russia crude oil pipeline project, from Skovorodino to Mohe, moved 100 million tons of oil from Russia to China between 2011 and May 19, 2017, according to TASS. The second oil pipeline will further improve the safety and reliability of China’s crude oil supplies and make up for old Chinese oil fields like Daqing, Liaohe, which will promote the old industrial bases in northeast area and the steady development of the national economy.

Global Times cited Zhang Hong, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, that “importing oil from Russia also has great benefits for China because, first, diversifying oil import sources can reduce the risks of regional politics on domestic economic security. Second, in terms of geography, importing oil from Russia is more convenient than getting it from distant sources like Saudi Arabia.”

Oct. 27, 2017 -Matteoli, chairman of the Italian shipowners association Confitarma, said that the New Silk Road initiative represents a major o ppMario ortunity for growth mainly for Italian ports, since they become the next preferred gateway for goods coming from Asia into Europe, while today, cargo flows are more often offloaded in Northern Europe before being distributed in Central and Southern Europe.

“The Belt and Road project is of course challenging and scary at the same time,” Matteoli said,”but I think that the Italian players should be aware of this great opportunity mainly because instead of being at the terminus of the belt, we could have an inversion of the tendency of what the flows are now. Many industries in the north of Italy import goods from the ports based in Germany and The Netherlands, but the new infrastructure projects could instead invert the trend, and eventually Italy could become the entry point for the goods to be distributed towards the north.”

Matteoli also addressed  a crucial role of shipowners for mankind, stating that “we, as shipowners, have to participate (in the New Silk Road) in order to grant a better world for the future generations.”