Central Asian leaders are optimistic about expanding regional trade

A growing spirit of cooperation supported August 9 gathering of the leaders of all five Central Asian states, along with Caspian neighbor Azerbaijan.

“Sustainable development” was the buzzword of the day for participants at the 6th Central Asian Heads of State Consultative Meeting held in the Kazakh capital Astana.

“Together we shape a new image of Central Asia as a region of great opportunities, looking to the future,” the host of the meeting, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, said his fellow regional leaders. “Given the combined potential of our countries, we can make a significant contribution to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda.”

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev it echoed those sentiments, stating that “Central Asia is becoming a space of good neighborliness, mutually beneficial cooperation and sustainable development.”

The font of such cheerful rhetoric is a common regional desire to expand trade, both within and across the region, connecting China and Western markets through the so-called Middle Corridor. Tokayev noted that all Central Asian states – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – are removing trade barriers and modernizing border checkpoints to speed up cargo transit. “Trade, economic and investment cooperation is developing dynamically,” he said.

A US-sponsored initiative called process B5+1provides a framework for improving trade flows in the region. Most efforts to reducing trade barriers have taken place, until now, at the bilateral level, not regionally. There has been a lot of talk about speeding up trade, but action to achieve that goal has been limited and much remains to be done, experts and observers say. Agreements have been signed, but effective implementation remains an open question.

The most important trade initiative in 2024 involves a “the green energy plan” by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to export solar and wind generated electricity across the Caspian Sea to Western markets. The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the meeting, emphasizing in his address To the assembly that “Azerbaijan and the countries of Central Asia are a single historical, cultural and geopolitical space of increasing strategic importance.”

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the two largest economies in the region, are taking the lead in promoting regional economic cooperation and integration. At a one-on-one meeting on August 8, which preceded the regional meeting in Astana, Tokayev and Mirziyoyev signed more than a dozen documents and agreements, including several aimed at simplifying border controls and procedures and boosting trade in the agricultural sector.

“The volume of trade in this (agricultural) sector has reached 1.7 billion dollars, which is about a third of the total volume of trade,” Tokayev. RECORDED in a statement released by the presidential press service. “Kazakhstan is interested in the supply of socially significant food products from Uzbekistan. In turn, we will continue to export flour, wheat and other products to our Uzbek partners.”

The two leaders, who declared their meeting as the inaugural session of the Kazakh-Uzbek Interstate Supreme Council, set a goal of doubling the annual volume of bilateral trade in the coming years to $10 billion. The bilateral council will work not only to improve trade systems, but also to address environmental concerns that can have a huge impact on economic development, especially the “integrated and rational use of water resources of transboundary rivers”.

Of Eurasianet.org

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