Routes to the Pacific: APEC members transport 7.1 billion tons of cargo and over a trillion passengers by railroad

We present a joint research project conducted by 1520International and the Institute of Transport Economics and Development (IEDT). The project’s next release is dedicated to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries’ railroad networks.

The APEC Trade and Economic Forum is an intergovernmental dialog mechanism. APEC is comprised by 21 different member economies: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, the United States of America, and Vietnam.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum was established in November 1989. Russia joined the APEC forum in 1998. The APEC Secretariat is located in Singapore.

APEC’s main objectives are to springboard countries’ economic growth rates, cooperate in regional trade, make a gradual transition to high technology, and improve the local populations’ quality of life.

The railway infrastructure of most APEC economies is a key component of their national economies and transportation systems, providing both domestic and international freight and passenger transportation.

The combined length of the APEC economies’ railroad network tops 624,000 km, of which about 191,000 km are electrified lines.

The total volume of cargo loaded onto the APEC rail network is about 7.1 billion tons per year, annual cargo turnover is in excess of 9.5 trillion km, while passenger turnover is as high as 1.174 trillion passenger kilometers.

In November 2020, the APEC Leaders' Meeting resulted in the adoption of the forum's policy document, the Putrajaya Development Benchmarks through 2040, which focuses on trade, investment, innovation, digitalization, as well as strong, balanced, secure, sustainable, and inclusive growth. The APEC Leaders' Meeting on November 12, 2021 endorsed the Action Plan to implement the Putrajaya Development Benchmarks through 2040.

In 2022, at the 29th APEC Informal Business Leaders' Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, Xi Jinping called for strengthening the Asia-Pacific community. APEC’s members widely appreciated China’s ideas and proposals.

One of these ideas is the One Belt, One Road initiative, which has allowed China to join forces with other APR countries to engage in joint development. One of this initiative’s projects is the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railroad project (142 km long), which has been run as a pilot project in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

In November 2023, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexey Overchuk spoke at another session of the APEC Summit "Sustainability, Climate, and Fair Energy Transition” in San Francisco and took part in a dialog between APEC leaders and representatives of the Business Advisory Council. The speech noted the active development of the West-East and North-South international transportation corridors in addition to the importance of linking them with China's One Belt, One Road initiative, as well as the implementation of a science-based efficient energy transition under conditions of technological neutrality.

According to IEDT