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Author : Shamshad Akhtar
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) This interview was conducted by Yury Minayev,
deputy editor-in-chief of International Affairs
A lot is being done in the Asia-Pacific to advance the program of
intraregional connectivity. But these efforts can hardly be success-
ful without progress in unifying transport systems. It is due to
progress in transport systems that trade within the Asia-Pacific is
developing intensively and is second in volume only to its trade
with the European Union.
In my view, the main achievement of ESCAP is the single regional
action program for sustainable transport connectivity that was
adopted in the middle of the last century.
It is essential to go over from the unimodal system of transport
development to a multimodal system. That is one of our current
tasks. We are also planning to launch an interconnectivity scheme,
which is a task that needs integration.
Another task we set ourselves is to move from overall connectivity to regional connectivity within
the borders of a country - gaining access to rural localities, solving the urban traffic jam problem,
making urban traffic more secure, and developing intellectual transport systems.
We see both initiatives, the Chinese one and the Russian one, as inalienable parts of the general
initiative of economic cooperation within the Asia-Pacific. This general initiative underlies an
ESCAP draft resolution that we are going to submit for approval and a comprehensive report
on regional economic cooperation and integration that we hope the members of our organization
will be able to familiarize themselves with in 2017.
The matter doesn't center around the country that will take the leadership role. There must be
absolute understanding among the developing countries of what the One Belt, One Road ini-
tiative is, and it needs to be clear what results those countries want this initiative to produce.
There exist three factors of global uncertainty. One of them is Brexit with its potential conse-
quences. Another is the policy of the future American administration. And then the future price
of oil - since there are few countries in our region that export oil, most them are dependent on
imports of energy. So, a decrease in the oil price would benefit Asia as a whole.
I have always tried to pay more attention to those 33 countries and to find a way to convince
Russia, China and other world leaders that those countries should have their needs satisfied so
that eventually everyone stands to gain. We are very lucky that China, by having put forward its
One Belt, One Road initiative, stresses the importance of supporting some of the countries in
this group.
http://interaffairs.ru
ESCAP and Transportation Problems in the Asia-Pacific