Silkroad congress focuses on rejuvenation of time-honored trade routes

Some 400 government officials and experts from 17 countries started on Monday a brainstorming session on the rejuvenation of the 2,000-year-old Silk Road.

Participants of the three-day International Silkroad Congress meet in Turkey's Istanbul to find ways to consolidate the historical friendship among the countries along the Silk Road, and initiate expanded inter-regional cooperation in the coming years.

The Silk Road is a series of cultural dissemination and trade routes linking merchants, pilgrims, and urban dwellers from China to the Mediterranean Sea region in various periods of time in history.

Rejuvenation of the Silk Road will be big opportunities for about 50 countries in the region as the world's wealth is shifting from the West to the East, Binali Yildirim, Turkish minister of transport, maritime affairs and communications, said at the opening ceremony of the event.

He also hailed the Marmaray tunnel in Istanbul, to be opened on Tuesday, as a continuation of the historical Silk Road, saying the rail transport project connecting the Asian and European continents will benefit both Turkey and its neighboring countries.

Afghan Transport Minister Daoud Najafi said his country is willing to be a land bridge.

"There will be great potential for economic development if countries along the Silk Road can work jointly on major projects," he said.

For his part, Georgia's Culture Minister Guram Odisharia said his country wishes to develop tourism along the Silk Road.

Azerbaijan's Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov said, "We would like to deliver service and infrastructure to the people who would like to develop rich natural resources in the region."

Chinese Ambassador to Turkey Gong Xiaosheng told Xinhua that Chinese President Xi Jinping recently visited four Central Asian countries and he suggested that China and the Central Asian countries, with a total population of three billion, should together build a Silk Road economic belt and develop this "unique market size with great potential."

Xi's idea has been widely welcomed and supported, said Gong. "There will be a great market and a promising future for the people in the region if the new Silk Road links Asia and Europe."