China wants to build a high-speed railway across Central Asia, a leading Chinese rail expert says.
Wang Mengshu told the South China Morning Post that Beijing plans to link the Western Chinese city of Urumqi with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The railway could later be extended to Europe.
"China's overseas high-speed rail projects serve two purposes. First, we need to develop the western regions. Secondly, we need natural resources. We foresee that in the coming decades, hundreds of millions of people will migrate to the western regions, where land is empty and resources are untapped," he told the newspaper on March 8.
"With the fast, convenient transport of high-speed trains, people will set up mines, factories and business centers in the west. They will trade with Central Asian and Eastern European countries," he added.
The rail project could be financed using a "resources-for-technology" barter arrangement, the report added.
