The Tumen Region is undergoing dramatic changes in terms of economic development and regional cooperation, and transport infrastructure is one of the fastest growing sectors. Transport development is encouraged by steadily increasing traffic across national borders in the region. The transport sector has received a great deal of attention form national and local governments in recent years, and the Tumen transport corridor is gradually becoming an advanced multimode transport network. In turn, better rail and road connections and improved border crossing formalities are facilitating business and investment in the region.
Cooperation between Jilin Province, China, and Primorsky Territory, Russia, has gained momentum over the past year. The bilateral talks conducted after the new Administration took office in Primorsky are starting to bear fruit. After reaching an agreement to build new border crossing facilities on the Russian side with Chinese funding, negotiations are now under way on construction of a composite railway line between Hunchun (China) and the port of Zarubino (Russia). A dual gauge railway track combined with more relaxed border crossing formalities will facilitate a shift in Chinese cargo from the north-south Dalian axis to the long discussed East-West corridor. For more information about the East by West trade and Transport Corridor project that aims to coordinate US-Russia and China-US cargo, please visit www.ahwg.org.
The second China-Russia bilateral meeting organized by the Tumen Secretariat took place in Vladivostok (Russia) in September 2001. the meeting addressed new initiatives in China-Russia cooperation and improvement of existing links. Passenger traffic through the Hunchun-Kraskino border crossing has soared with the introduction of visa free travel for organized tour groups between the two countries.
The pre-feasibility study of the road link between the DPRK port of Rajin and the DPRK/china border at Wonjoing was completed in December 2001. this study, commissioned by the Tumen Secretariat and implemented by the China Highway Planning and Design Institute, provided answers to many questions concerning one of the remaining bottlenecks of the Tumen transport corridor.
At a bilateral meeting hosted by the local government of the Rajin-Sonbong Economic and Trade Zone (DPRK) in February 2002, government officials form DPRK and China assessed the report and discussed ways of cooperating in construction of the road, which is important both for the Zone and for Yanbian Prefecture in China. The road on the Chinese side of the border has been upgraded to a high standard in recent years. While acknowledging the value of the information provided by the study, both parties emphasized the urgent need to begin actual construction of the road and agreed to work to mobilize the estimated US % 70 million investment.
The Trans-Siberian Raiway (TSR) is being revived with a noticeable increase in transit traffic between ROK and Europe. Experts believe that the TSR has a strong chance of making a comeback as a major land bridge between Asia and Europe. Thanks to measures taken by the Russian government in recent years, the performance of the TSR has improved greatly, indicating that it may regain its competitiveness compared to the sea routes that currently dominate trade between Northeast Asia and Europe.
High level talks on restoration of both the western and eastern Trans-Korean Railway lines have also been successful. Implementation of the agreements underway between the two Koreas and Russia would have a major impact on the transport network in the region.