Silk Road plan 'may take decades'

The threat of terrorist groups and uncertainty over China's future economic growth are some of the challenges facing the nation's New Silk Road initiatives, says a scholar at a Chinese government think tank.

Many factors inside China and beyond had to be considered before the US$40-billion Silk Road infrastructure fund can "break the connectivity bottleneck" in Asia, according to Shi Ze, a senior fellow at the China Institute of International Studies. The concepts of the New Silk Road Economic Belt, which runs from China across Central Asia and Russia to Europe, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, through the Malacca Strait to India, the Middle East and East Africa were put forward by President Xi Jinping during overseas visits in 2013.

Xi delivered a keynote address last month focusing on China's vision for the initiatives, aimed at improving infrastructure and boosting trade ties in Asia and beyond. Investment will be funded through the Silk Road Fund and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a new international lending institution proposed by China.

Shi said Islamic militants were active in countries in Central Asia such as Turkmenistan and this posed a threat to future investment.

"The road ahead is paved with difficulties. The terrorist organisation Islamic State poses a great threat to the New Silk Road," he said.

President Xi said during his meeting with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov last year that the two countries should jointly fight terrorism, separatism and extremism.

The London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence said in a report that an estimated 360 Turkmen fighters had joined Islamic State since 2012.