Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS November 6, 1997

11/06/97, Reuters, By Jane Macartney

KASHGAR, China, Nov 6 (Reuters) - A thousand years ago caravans of camels and yaks laden with baskets of silk, ceramics and spices flowed west from China along the Silk Road to Rome, bartering their merchandise for gold, gems and glass.

Times, tastes and transport have changed.

Now trucks and trains carry containers along routes that once claimed the lives of countless men and beasts, flooding Central Asia's bazaars with cheap Chinese clothes and crockery and returning with loads of copper, steel and pine nuts.

Officials in the westernmost region of Xinjiang voice confidence the remote and undeveloped hinterland is well placed to oversee trade from China's huge inland manufacturing base to markets throughout Central Asia and the Middle East.

``We want to use the Silk Road. We want to rebuild this ancient trade route,'' Liu Yushen, Foreign Affairs Bureau director for Xinjiang, said in an interview.

``At present, goods must be shipped by sea, but after our communications are improved then goods can be transported by road and rail through Xinjiang to other countries,'' he said.

FASTER, MORE CONVENIENT

``This will be much faster and more convenient,'' he said.

Xinjiang's foreign trade was just $1.44 billion last year, or a mere 0.48 percent of China's total.

Sharing borders with Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia and serving as a corridor to the Middle East, Turkey and other former Soviet Union states, the mainly Moslem region peopled by ethnic Uighurs has enormous potential, officials said.

But it also has some fairly major drawbacks -- such as communications and Xinjiang's limited number of open border crossings.

The number of frontier ports has multiplied since the days when Beijing barred its frontiers to its former bitter communist enemy, the Soviet Union, and when soaring mountain ranges forbade effective access to neighbouring Pakistan.

A road cut through the mountain passes to Pakistan has carried a trade boom, although the route is closed for about five months of the year when winter snows make it impassable.

Frontier gates have been opened with the independent states of Central Asia since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.

A MAJOR WINDOW

``We are a major window for opening, for an economic and trade gate to Pakistan and the east,'' said Kong Fuxi, who is in charge of foreign affairs for the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, China's westernmost trading post.

Businessmen from Kazakhstan roam the markets of Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, filling large nylon carrier bags with garments and packing consumer products into cartons to take home.

In Kashgar, Pakistani traders load trucks with bales of Chinese silk for the journey across the Pamir mountains and through the Khunjerab pass to the bazaars of Karachi, Lahore and even the Gulf states.

Xinjiang has now opened 17 border crossings, including a railway link to Kazakhstan, as part of China's bid to revive the Silk Road.

China hails the 11,000-km (6,600-mile) road and railway network it is building to connect its eastern coastal regions with Central Asia and eventually Europe as the New Euro-Asia Continental Bridge.

The goal is to ensure that a toy from Hong Kong or a skein of silk from Hangzhou can travel by land across Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland and Germany to western European ports such as Rotterdam and Antwerp.

COMMERCE SKYROCKETS

China completed the tracks of a railway through northern Xinjiang and over the Alataw Pass to Kazakhstan in 1993, and commerce has skyrocketed.

This year an estimated 35,000 containers will be transported through Alataw, almost tripling from 12,118 in 1996 and a negligible 257 the year before.

With border trade showing such huge potential, Beijing has earmarked 3.0 billion yuan ($361.5 million) to extend its southern railway to Kashgar, from the oasis oil town of Korla where it now terminates.

The railway across the shifting sands of the Taklamakan desert to Xinjiang may snake into Kyrgyzstan one day and could turn south to link Xinjiang's southern oasis towns that have faded into dusty backwaters since their heyday 1,000 years ago as major Silk Road trading posts, officials said.

Trader Khalvi Alvi from the northern Pakistan town of Gilgit was upbeat about the future of the Silk Road as he loaded a truck in the courtyard of a Kashgar hotel.

``I think trade will grow,'' he said. ``Pakistan will do more and more and we can purchase lots of things.''

The sea route from Shanghai to Karachi takes three to four months, compared with less than one month overland.

``By this road, goods can travel from Shanghai to the markets of Lahore in just 25 days,'' he said. ``I think this trade is very positive for both countries.''

But the trip is not smooth as silk. Ali complains about the high cost of transport and the soaring fees demanded by border and customs officials.

EXCESSIVE RED TAPE

``There are some unfortunate factors in trade,'' said Liu, adding that excessive red tape and exorbitant unauthorised fees charged by local officials were dampening the enthusiasm for traders using border crossings.

Another difficulty was particular to the Central Asian states -- mounting unpaid bills.

Liu estimated the debts of Central Asian businessmen to China at well over $100 million. ``And that is a conservative figure,'' he said. ``This is a big headache.''

Pakistani businessmen were in general regarded as more trustworthy and more likely to honour their letters of credit.

Among the biggest problems was with Kyrgyzstan, officials said. Trade with that Central Asian nation had dried up rapidly in the last few years after a brief boom in the early 1990s.

``There used to be many Kyrgyz traders in our markets, especially for the Sunday bazaar,'' said Kashgar's Kong. ``But now they don't have the money to come here and our traders ship their goods directly into Kyrgyzstan to sell.''

The products that command a market outside China are also changing, from raw materials when the border was first opened to floods of light industrial goods and agricultural products in recent years, officials said.

``We sell cotton seed oil, flour, rice and rock sugar and other household goods they lack,'' said Kong. ``We take their copper, aluminium, automobiles, wool, cotton and leather.''

Foreign trade is soaring this year, after nearly two years in the doldrums, they said. In the first half of this year, Xinjiang's exports skyrocketed 78.5 percent to $328.1 million while imports edged up 4.5 percent to $221 million.

``We know that we have problems to solve,'' said Liu. ``We need to boost the quality of exports, we need to improve our administration...we need to open more border ports and we need to invest in our communications and infrastructure.''

But in China's Wild West, pioneering traders and government officials seem determined to ensure the rebirth of the ancient route that took silk and rhubarb to the West and brought gold, Buddhism and Marco Polo to Beijing.

``The Uighurs are natural born traders,'' said Liu. ``Uighurs are engaged in trade in the Middle East, in Turkey even on Wall Street.

``The Silk Road can be reborn.''