Akylbek Japarov, Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Head of the Presidential Administration of Kyrgyzstan, stated at the Tashkent Investment Forum on April 27 that the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway would guide “our region out of a transport impasse.”
According to him, implementation of the strategic project will also “connect about four billion people, expand the geography of transport from Asia through Turkey to Europe, to the Middle East region, Iran, the Persian Gulf countries and North Africa”.
The Kyrgyz government chief noted that the Tashkent investment forum has taken place “as a solid international discussion platform and has a great future”.
“This is not a figure of speech and because it is becoming more and more evident that at a time when all the systems of the customary world order are beginning to fail, it will be possible to keep our regional „boat“ afloat only if we maintain a common balance and follow a single, coherent course. I would be correct in saying that analysts have never found it as difficult to make predictions as they do nowadays,” he said.
The world community is witnessing a shift of “the global economic centre of gravity,” Akylbek Japarov said.
“By 2050, perhaps even sooner, emerging economies will have an economy that is twice the combined size of the G-7 countries. We can see that the world is moving towards fragmentation into regional and sub-regional economic blocs. And they will have economic weight and global prestige. We may also see a gradual fragmentation of the world into different financial and economic systems,” he said.
In his speech, the Chairman of the Kyrgyz Cabinet of Ministers also outlined Central Asia’s “competitive advantages”.
“We see our region as a single geo-economic space in which all forms of economic cooperation and interaction are successfully formed. And all components of this system are mutually complementary and reinforce each other. An important condition here is to ensure four „freedoms“: the movement of people, goods, services and capital. There is a lot of work to be done, but it is all doable with goodwill,” he said.
“We see our region as a geopolitical mediator through which international politics and the centres of influence of countries in the East, West, North and South interact. We see our region as actively interacting and dynamically developing communities that share and support similar cultural, historical and traditional values and perceptions,” Akylbek Japarov said.
In 2022, an agreement was signed between Uzbekistan, China, and Kyrgyzstan to conduct a feasibility study for a 280 km section of the Torugart-Arpa-Kosh-Dobo-Makmal-Jalal-Abad route. The railway construction project’s feasibility study is set to be completed by June 1, 2023, and will be developed by a Chinese design institute. By January’s end, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan were expected to discuss the project management’s structure and process.
