Riding the new Silk Road economic belt

FROM his perch as vice-chairman of the Kerry Group and chairman of its Hong Kong-listed logistics unit handling US$2.7 billion-worth of business annually, George Yeo observes first-hand how China is reviving the ancient Silk Road.

Last year, the former foreign minister of Singapore travelled on a four-lane highway from Hanoi to Lang Son, the border town where the Sino-Vietnamese war was fought most ferociously in 1979. He crossed the border to reach Pingxiang, the largest border checkpoint city on the China side. From there, the highway expands to six lanes and traverses its way to the port city of Shenzhen.

The Vietnam-China border trade has enabled global giants such as Samsung and Foxconn, Apple computer's top supplier, to form a seamless two-way supply chain for manufacturing parts and assembling finished goods made in their respective plants in the two countries. The two formerly warring governments have found a way to regulate trade flows using bilateral agreements such as capping the number of cross-border tracks.