Improving Transnational Transport Corridors
In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases
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2.3. General factors
To establish a conceptual foundation of the transnational transport corridors in OIC member
states in line with the overall objective of the study, necessitates a general appreciation of the
issues that drive the formation of transport corridors and a discussion on whether the issues
mostly economic, political or cultural.
One of the oldest examples of transport corridors is the Silk Road or Silk Route, which was an
ancient network of trade routes that were for centuries central to cultural interaction through
regions of the Asian continent connecting the East and West and stretching from the Korean
peninsula and Japan to the Mediterranean Sea.
It is important that the historic role of the Silk Road is seen in economic and cultural terms.
The main traders during antiquity included the Chinese, Arabs, Turkmens, Indians, Persian,
Somalis, Greeks, Syrians, Romans, Georgians, and Koreans (Khyade, 2012). Trade on the Silk
Road played a significant role in the development of the civilizations of China, the
kingdom (now called Korea), Japan, the India th
and opening long-distance political and economic relations between the civilizations.
The ancient route, which operated for 1700 years, gave rise to new cities along its path, many
of which have become famous contemporary centers of religions and culture.
Though silk was certainly the major trade item exported from China, many other goods were
traded, and religions, hilosophies, various technologies and diseases, most notably
th also spread along the Silk Road. In addition to economic trade, the Silk Road was a
route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its network (Christian, 2000). The Silk
Road encapsulates almost everything that is diagnostic of a contemporary transport corridor,
many countries, moving trade and spreading culture. Yet looking at the map of the silk route
one can see that it is more of an international network than a narrow route that
simply contains two or more modes of transport as is commonly defined today.