About the Silk Road

The old route laid the foundations . . .

From its misty beginnings before Christ and its slow death about 700 years ago, the Silk Road has had a unique role in foreign trade and political relations and left its mark far beyond Asia impacting the growth of six great civilizations – China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, and Rome. It also laid the foundations of the modern world.

Stretching over 8,000 km (5,000 miles), the Silk Road was an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe.

In the broadest sense, the silk routes extended to the Mediterranean. Overland routes led from the Mediterranean through Syria to Mespotamia, ancient Iran, and Margiana (Merv) in western Central Asia. Routes from Margiana reached Bactria in the Oxus valley, or branched northwards to Sogdia and continued through the Ferghana valley and across the Altai range to Kashgar. Capillary routes through the Karakoram Mountains directly linked the silk routes of eastern Central Asia with the major arteries of the Indian subcontinent. The northern route extending from Bactria to northern India was connected to the southern route in the Deccan plateau and seaports on the western coast of India.

. . . the new could redefine this century

Though the old Silk Road has fallen into disuse, its story is far from over. In the modern world, the old road resurrects itself as nations along it and on its periphery become the new engines of growth in this century. With the latest developments, and the changes in political and economic systems, the edges of the Taklimakan may yet see international trade once again, on a scale considerably greater than that of old.

Today a new Silk Road jets its way from the busy ports of Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore to the Persian Gulf, and from sparkling airport lounges in Dubai and Riyadh back to Asia's bustling cities.

International Business Facilitators (IBF), inspired by the old Silk Road and fired by the economic resurgence of the countries along it, has placed itself strategically to redefine the matrix of cross-border wealth management, investing banking and strategic consulting in a fresh way.