REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NUSA DUA -- Road infrastructure plays an important role in facilitating social needs and economic activities said Hermanto Dardak, President of Road Engineering Association of Asia Australasia (REAAA).

"Roads build economic competitiveness by connecting production sources to markets, which in turn contribute to the significant creation of business opportunities and associated employments, and demonstrates multiplier effect to the local and regional economic development," he said on Monday (17/11) during the opening of 1st IRF Asia Regional Congress, Nusa Dua, Bali.

He added, the existence of road infrastructure plays a big role in strengthening the functioning of a region.

"For example, Sumatera region with an area of 443 thousand Km2 or 22% of the area of Indonesia. We presently preserve and improve about 6000 km existing National roads and has just started the development of the Trans-Sumatera Highway of about 2700 km, which will adopt expressway specification," he explained.

In a larger scale, he said, the Southeast Asia region or the Asia region, can also be examples of how road infrastructure plays a role in their respective functioning.

ASEAN region covers a land area of 4.46 million km2 with population of about 600 million people or about 8.8 % of the world population.

At the 5th ASEAN Transport Minister meeting in 1999, the ASEAN Highway network was agreed to formalise the strategic route configuration and the uniform technical design standards of ASEAN highway network and to intensify cooperation in the facilitation of international road traffic throughout the South-East Asia region.

Asian region covers a land are of about 44,5 million km2 or about 30.6% of world land area. Having about 4,42 billion people, Asia region host 66% of the world population.

In relation with Asian regional development, road network can function as a tool for gathering the various products within the region, such as the ancient Silk Road in the Asian region that served as a great trade route originating from Xian, China in the east and ending at the Mediterranean in the west.

"The ancient Silk Road passed through many settlements to transform the isolated continents into independent global community, all spanning the length of approximately 8,000 km. This major ancient trade route which was named after silk as the major traded product, not only circulated goods, but also exchanged the splendid cultures of China, India, Persia, Arabia, Greek and Rome," he said.

In 1959,  the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) initiated The Trans Asia Highway aimed at promoting the development of international road transport in the region.

Agreements have been signed in 1992 by 32 countries to allow the highway to cross the continent and also reach to Europe and the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Asian Highway Network with the length of about 141.000 km was adopted in the year 2003.

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