Ozer Khalid/ DAily Sabah :

The governments of Pakistan, Turkey and Iran seized a historic opportunity to revive a transnational, transcontinental railway service strategically connecting Istanbul, Tehran and Islamabad, unleashing profound economic prospects as developing nations strive to economically rebound amid alarming inflation, devalued currencies and hauntingly crippling waves of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Dec. 21, 2021, the Turkish manufactured Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (ITI) freight train commenced its journey from Islamabad’s railway station in sector I-9 of the capital en route to its premier destination in Zahedan, Iran, from where the Turkish train will pick up goods and head toward Istanbul.
The ITI rail inauguration was attended by several dignitaries, including Pakistani Railway Minister Azam Khan Swati, and Amjad Ali Khan, director-general of the ITI train project, as well as Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and commercial advisor Razak Dawood. The ambassadors of Turkey, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan inaugurated the cargo train’s flagging off ceremony.
The ITI is a revolutionary first step vis-a-vis regional Eurasian trade connectivity. It is a ground-breaking generational “geo-economic” opportunity for Pakistan, Turkey and Iran, who will benefit from the potential trade and infrastructure diplomacy of the new railway.
Turkey, Pakistan and Iran’s importers and exporters can fully leverage this commercial opportunity at a time highly influenced by strategic “geo-economics.”
Geostrategically for Turkey, the long-anticipated ITI transnational railroad bolsters connectivity with China’s game-changing Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by offering rail connection between China and Turkey whereby the country’s businesses will gain unparalleled access to China’s consumer market of 1.402 billion people and Pakistan’s promising market of 220.9 million consumers, helping to economically turnaround Turkey in a post-COVID-19 era.
This modern “orient express” links Western and Central Asia to China through its flagship BRI. Also linking the BRI to seamlessly connect China and Europe, the ITI railway is crucial for Beijing given China’s whopping investments in Pakistan via the China-Pakistan-Economic Corridor and Iran through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). With the free trade agreement (FTA) between China and Pakistan, other beneficiary countries could also conduct direct exports to China tax-free, according to a report published by Daily Sabah.
Opportunities for all
ITI’s revolutionary rail connectivity offers unprecedented opportunities for struggling nations like Afghanistan, where regional trade is vital to bring the volatile state back from the brink of economic collapse, social unrest and a looming humanitarian crisis. The ITI network also benefits the energy and mineral-rich Central Asian Republics (CARs) like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and China.
Analysts forecast that the ITI could boost Pakistan’s foreign trade volume, which is currently around $65 billion (TL 577.34 billion). The ITI empowers Pakistan’s business community with the potential to earn $32 million annually with the possibility to increase it to $64 million if the ITI network is linked to additional railway stations in Lahore, Faisalabad (a business and textile hub), Sialkot (a sporting goods and apparel production center), Karachi (the main commercial hub) and Rohri (known for rice, sugarcane wheat and cotton) to transport goods to Turkey, a country that remains a pivotal gateway to Europe and Central Asia from Pakistan.