Possible Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on Foreign Trade in Central Asia
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been launched by the leadership of the People’s Republic of China in 2013. It is going to cover virtually all countries of Eurasia including five countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), which are the western neighbors of China. Through the BRI, Chinese government proposes to support very different types of interventions in partner countries including infrastructure development, investments into production capacity, measures in trade facilitation, and human and cultural exchanges, among other things. This may create an opportunity for the landlocked and relatively geographically isolated Central Asian economies to improve their connectivity to China, but also to other parts of the world. Foreign trade of these countries seems to be one of the areas to be affected the most, and it is hoped in Central Asia that the BRI will increase the region’s export capacity. So far, these economies mostly export crude oil, natural gas, metals and some agricultural products, and they import a broad spectrum of manufactured products and services.
Photo: Reuters, BEIJING, CHINA - MAY 15, 2017: Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang, China's President Xi Jinping, Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L-R front), Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambayev and Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev (R-L middle) seen ahead of a group photo ceremony at the One Belt, One Road international forum at the Beijing Yanqi Lake International Convention & Exhibition Center.
