Spanning 32 countries, The Asia highway is a 142,204 km network of roadways that will criss-cross Asia with link to Europe

The original concep for the Asia highway was born in1959 to bring the World closer together as part of the post World War II era. As laid down in the primble to the UN Charter, it was designed to enhance social progress and boost living standards. In the 1960s and 1970s, much progess was made in identifying a regional road network with cooperation of member countres. In the late 1980s, after the Indochina wars, the Asia  - Pacific region emerged as a dynamic arena of economic growth. Demand increased for efficent road transport, which proved to be a versatile and cost - effective mode for moving large numbers of people and goods across borders.

Concept of the Asian Highway

Developing and international highway network is a hugely expensive and time - consuming exercise. It involves building roads of common stadards through vastly different kinds of terrain, ranging from mountains to deserts, crossing rivers and traversing forests. Because many ESCAP countries can not afford the high costs of building such a comprehensive network, it was agreed that the basic thrust would be to coordinate the development and upgrading of existing regional highway among member countries.

In this regard, participating countries agreed that the basic underlying principles for the Asian highway network would be to include only major national roads in the network and make maximum use of existing roads, avoiding construction of new highways except in cases where deemed necessary to complete “missing links”

Identifying the network

ESCAP was handed the complex task of coordinating the development of the Asian hightway among member countries. With financial help from Japan, it conducted a saries of studies, the first of which was published in 1995. This study identified 29 Asian Highway routes, totalling 69.000 kilometres.

In 1996, a second study was completed on the network in central Asia and the South Caucasus, leading to the inclusion of a further 3,200 kilometres to the network

A third study was completed in 2001 and identified Asian Highway routes in China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the Russia Federation and the Korean peninsula. These routes formed the Northern Corridor of the Asia Highway, effectively lingking North - East Asia with central Asia, the Caucaus and Europe.

About 40,000 kilometres of road network were included in the network. In 2001 and 2002, Asian Highway routes were identified in Georgia and Bhutan respectively. An Expert Group Meeting held in May 2002 amongst 30 member coutries reviewed the entire network and extended it to towns and cities in 31 countries, covering a total of 140,000 kilometres. In November 2003, Japan joined the Asia Highway project by including the Tokyo – Fukuoka section in the network. Brunei  Darussalam has also expressed a keen interest to joint the network.

Momalisation of the Asian Highway Network

In April 2004, an Intergovernmental Agreement on the Asian Highway Network was signed during the 60th session of the ESCAP Commission in Shanghai. This obliges those countries that sign and retify the agreement to adopt the Asian Highway network as a coordinated plan for the development of highway routes; upgrade the routes in their respective countries to conform with the Asian Highway classification and design standards; and facilitate navigation along the routes through adequate signage

The agreement has so far been signed by 28 member states and ratified by eight - Cambodia, China, Japan, Myanmar, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Uxbekistan and Vietnam. The agreement and its three annexes map out the network in Asia, setting down basic technical standards for the road and their route signs.

Promotion of the Asian Highway

As member countries implement the AH routes within their national plans, ESCAP says it is now critical to promote a greater awarenness amongst policy - makers and the general public of the cotribution of the Asian Highway to regional economic and social progress. ESCAP has been providing information to highway administrations, road developers, financing institutions, road users, tourists, private sector and the general public to raise public ewareness of the importance of the Asian Highway

A vision of the Future

The Asian Highway network includes primarily international and domestic trunk routes. In future, it is envisaged that secondary roads will become part of the network, providing important link to domestic and intenational networks.

The flow of intenational traffic is steadily increasing through the Asian Highway network, and will grow further which improved infrastructure, as in Europe. Ways to ensure the sustained growth in cross - border flow of peoples and goods will continue to be discussed in the ESCAP Working Group on the Asian Highway.