General

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 31 years ago, China's international trade and economic cooperation with the five Central Asian countries has continued to grow strongly, and the bilateral trade volume has expanded more than 100 times.  

As of the end of March this year, China's direct investment stock in the five Central Asian countries exceeded 15 billion US dollars. More and more Chinese enterprises are investing and developing in Central Asia, and a number of major projects have been successfully implemented, helping to upgrade industries, interconnect and improve people's livelihoods in Central Asian countries. Wang Haiyan, Vice President of the Institute of Russia and Eurasia at East China Normal University and Director of the Kazakhstan Research Center, told reporters that under the guidance of the China Central Asian Summit mechanism, Chinese enterprises will launch a new wave of economic and trade cooperation with Central Asia.

Economic and trade cooperation is expected to reach a new level

In the past decade, China and Central Asian countries have jointly built the "the Belt and Road", from the "freehand brushwork" at the beginning of the layout to the exquisite "fine brushwork" now, which has achieved fruitful cooperation results in various fields and widely benefited the people of all countries in the region——

The completion of the China Kazakhstan Khorgos International Border Cooperation Center and the China Kazakhstan Lianyungang Logistics Cooperation Base opened the door of Central Asian countries to the Pacific Ocean. The first long tunnel in Central Asia, the "Anglian Pap" railway tunnel, constructed by a Chinese enterprise, has been successfully completed, ending the history of local people needing to cross mountains or bypass other countries for travel. The China Jiwu Highway has officially opened to traffic, becoming a major artery for international transportation that spans high mountains and is unobstructed. The China Europe freight trains passing through Central Asia account for nearly 80% of the total number of China Europe freight trains. The "steel camel caravan" has accelerated, and the "Air Silk Road" has woven into a fine network. The customs clearance capacity of ports has been continuously enhanced, and a new pattern of comprehensive and three-dimensional regional connectivity has been formed.

Wang Haiyan said that the cooperation between China and Central Asian countries has brought huge development opportunities for local economic and social development, especially the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" transportation artery and the upgrading of international trade exchanges, which greatly benefits the enterprises and people of both sides. Currently, Central Asian countries are actively implementing policies to attract foreign investment, and striving to create a favorable and predictable investment environment for foreign enterprises by improving preferential policies in taxation, labor, and other aspects. The mechanism of the China Central Asian Summit will further promote investment and trade cooperation between the two sides to a new level.

Ding Fen, the person in charge of Xinjiang Bolian Color Printing and Packaging Co., Ltd., introduced to the reporter: "The company mainly produces food packaging related products, and has cooperated with Central Asian countries for more than 20 years. In recent years, driven by the joint construction of the international trade" the Belt and Road ", the trade environment between China and Central Asian countries has become better and better, and the company's trade volume has also achieved substantial growth. With the help of the China China Asia Summit effect, the cooperation and communication between the company and Central Asian enterprises will be closer in the future, and the path of international trade will be broadened."

Green energy has become a new highlight of cooperation

At the recently concluded China China Asia Summit, energy cooperation became a key area of focus for all parties. The Xi'an Declaration of the China Central Asia Summit released during the summit proposed that all parties support the establishment of the China Central Asia Energy Development Partnership, expand cooperation in the entire energy industry chain, further expand cooperation in traditional energy fields such as oil, natural gas, and coal, strengthen cooperation in renewable energy such as hydropower, solar energy, and wind energy, and implement projects such as green technology and clean energy.

As an important region for jointly building the "Green Silk Road", Central Asia has broad space for cooperation with China in green and clean energy. The green energy policies of both sides are open and compatible, and the advantages of green energy cooperation are complementary, ready to be developed.

Recently, Huantai Energy signed a wind power cooperation and investment agreement with the Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan. According to the agreement, Huantai Energy will invest in the construction of a total scale of 500MW wind power project in Samarkand Oblast, Uzbekistan. It is expected to start by the end of 2023 and can be completed and connected to the grid by 2026. During the summit, it also signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the Kyrgyz Ministry of Energy.

The five Central Asian countries are also important markets for China Machinery industrial engineering Group. Fang Yanshui, general manager of China Machinery industrial engineering Group, introduced to the reporter that at present, the Group has carried out practical cooperation with Central Asian countries in power energy, new energy, health care and infrastructure, especially in new energy business, with the contract amount exceeding 3 billion dollars.

The clean energy resources of the five Central Asian countries are very abundant, and the demand for green transformation and development is very urgent. The market demand is also very high. State Machinery Engineering Group will actively implement the spirit of the summit, based on the resource endowments of the five Central Asian countries, especially in terms of wind, light, and water resources, combined with local market demand, and leverage the advantages of integrating the EPC function of the new energy industry chain, such as contracting ability, investment and financing ability, and localized resource ability, to promote the integration of the new energy industry chain Local hydropower stations, new energy, green infrastructure, smart grids, and renovation of old infrastructure have effectively contributed to the international trade and economic development, green transformation, and people's well-being of the five Central Asian countries by Chinese enterprises Fang Yanshui said.