2012 will be Chinese Culture Year in Turkey. Many activities are planned including a seven-city tour of Chinese music, opera, dance and acrobatics; plus Chinese arts, crafts, and history. A week of Chinese films will also be mounted as will an exhibition of the world-famous "Teracotta Army", ancient Emperor Qin Shi Huang's huge collection of life-sized clay figures.

These activities will be reciprocated in China the following year with a year of Turkish Culture.

Such a high level of cultural exchange is further evidence of the Strategic Partnership between the two countries which was announced in October 2010 during the visit to Turkey of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. This relationship has raised echoes of the historical links that existed between China and Anatolia from ancient times, links that included the legendary Silk Road, one of the world's greatest trade routes between the powerful Ottoman and Chinese empires. Indeed, the roots of Turkish culture originate from Central Asia and China. It has even been said that it was the Chinese that gave the Turks their name over 2,700 years ago when they named the tribes living in Central and Northern Asia "Tu Jue" which means "strong".

The fact that both China and Turkey are fast-growing economic centers and returning to the front rank of global power is creating important opportunities for economic and political co-operation. Chinese ambassador to Turkey, Gong Xiaosheng, recently expressed his belief in this possibility: "In the past, the historical Silk Road was an emblem of friendship, communication and collaboration between our two countries. We hope that these two years of promoting each other's cultures will reignite and breathe life into that ancient union."

On the economic side, Turkey already represents an important market for China. By 2010 China was the third largest source of Turkey's imports, the previous decade seeing trade between the two countries rising more than 12 fold to a value of 20 billion dollars. This rate of increase looks set to continue. The signing of last year's Strategic Agreement in Ankara included a target of 50 billion dollars of mutual trade by 2015 rising to 100 billion dollars by 2020.

Transport Links: In order to facilitate this massive expansion of trade between China and Turkey, both governments have been busy working on ways to create modern equivalents of the old Silk Road. These include upgrading of motorway connections in the the North West of China and expansion of air transport facilities in the region such as the International Airport at Urumqi. This fits in well with China's determination to develop the west of the country in order to relieve pressure on its over-heating Eastern coastal regions, and distribute work and prosperity more evenly as part of its ambitious anti-poverty program. For example, the under-developed northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is an enormous area with rich resources but held back by geographical isolation and poor transport links. The Uygurs are a Turkic Islamic people whose life and culture closely resembles Turkey.

Of particular importance in the transport strategy is the construction of Eurasian trans-continental railways for freight and passengers. The Western Route which is now well underway plans to link Northwestern China to Europe via Turkey, traversing a number of countries en route including Kazakhstan and Iran. To this end a few weeks ago China and Kazakhstan completed their rail link which meets at the new Khorgos international trade center. China is also planning to help change Kyrgyzstan's 1,520-millimeter rail tracks to the international standard of 1,435 millimeters in order to easily connect with the Chinese, Turkish and Iranian rail systems. For China fast rail links would dramatically reduce transport times from its eastern ports which currently take about five weeks by sea. It would also reduce logistical costs.

At the Turkish end, Turkey and China have agreed to work together in the building of a 7,000 kilometer high-speed rail network connecting all the main cities of Turkey. Usefully, China has recently emerged as the world's leading rail technology nation with 42 high-speed rail lines covering 13,000 kilometers nearing completion. For the Turkish project China is supplying considerable finance and technology. Construction has already finished several major stages and is expected to be completed by 2023. An important part of the project is the Marmaray rail tunnel being built under the Bosphorus to link both sides of Istanbul and allow direct train travel from Asia to Europe.

Gateway to Europe: One of the concerns expressed in Turkey at the expanding trade with China is its imbalance - currently 80 percent are exports from China to Turkey. However, this is not as bad as it first appears. A major part of these Chinese exports are products containing medium or low level technology which are not manufactured in Turkey anyway. Also many of these goods are reprocessed by Turkish manufacturers and then exported to other countries. Last but not least, imports from China have helped to decrease inflation in Turkey.

But it is in the area of foreign investment and joint production that Turkey's new strategic partnership with China could really shine. As a member of the European Union's Customs Union, Turkey is ideally placed to become a more efficient base for Chinese production into Europe. In particular, China could play an enormously positive role in helping Turkey to develop its virtually non-existent computer technology sector. This represents a massive hole in Turkey's economic strategy and is a major factor in its continuing balance of trade problems.

The potential is there. Turkey has a young and relatively well-educated workforce which could provide Chinese state-owned technology companies with an excellent resource from which to supply the European market. Such investment needs to become a key component of the economic relationship between the two countries, a relationship based on mutual interests rather than exploitation. Then the red flag that flies over both countries can bring more than cultural benefits in coming years.

Patrick Byrne is an Irish journalist based In Turkey. He can be reached at patbyrneme@gmail.com

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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