How the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway is Transforming the Economic Map of the Continent

Interview with Akramjon Nematov, First Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of Uzbekistan (ISMI), for the Dunyo News Agency.

The historic state visit of the President of Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan has once again drawn immense attention from the expert community to the construction project of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway. What role did this railway play during the high-level talks in Bishkek, and what specific aspects of the project were the focus of attention for the leaders of the two countries?

Indeed, the recent state visit was a truly historic event that opened a new chapter in the development of Uzbek-Kyrgyz relations. The high-level talks were held in an atmosphere of unprecedented trust, mutual understanding, and strategic partnership, confirming that bilateral cooperation has reached a qualitatively new level of alliance.
The practical implementation of the project, which is already rightfully called the "construction project of the century"—the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway—occupied a special place on the agenda. After many years of discussion, the project has moved into the active construction phase, and the leaders of the two countries discussed in detail the current progress of this unprecedentedly large-scale work. Of particular significance is that during the talks, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev emphasized the need to accelerate the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, noting that this project is one of the key factors for the long-term economic development of the entire region.
Essentially, this is not just about building another infrastructure facility. A new architecture of Eurasian connectivity is being formed, which will enable Central Asia to significantly strengthen its own agency, expand access to global markets, and diversify its foreign economic ties. This is precisely why the leaders paid so much attention to synchronizing practical work and further developing transport infrastructure.

It is important to note that, thanks to close coordination at the highest level, the pace of construction is ahead of the original schedule. Today, the project, initially planned for at least five years, is realistically expected to be completed a year early.
This demonstrates a highly effective mobilization of resources: over 10,000 specialists and more than 7,000 pieces of heavy machinery are already deployed at the sites. The railway opens a fundamentally new chapter in the destiny of the entire Central Asian region, radically altering the geopolitical and geoeconomic configuration of the entire space.

What is the geoeconomic significance of this corridor on a Eurasian scale, and how does it change the position of the region, particularly Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan?

The project radically rewrites the transport and logistics map of Eurasia, creating the shortest and most efficient overland route between East and West—a modern "Iron Silk Road."
Traditionally, Central Asia has been perceived in global trade solely as a landlocked region with limited transit capabilities. The launch of this railway transforms us from a "dead-end" zone into a global crossroads of Eurasian trade. The designed capacity of the new railway will be up to 15 million tons annually. To understand the scale, it is enough to note that the total volume of railway freight in Kyrgyzstan in 2025 was 10.5 million tons. Thus, once it reaches its design capacity, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway alone will have a throughput exceeding the current freight volume of Kyrgyzstan's entire national railway system.
For Uzbekistan, this is a colossal step towards strengthening its status as a transit hub, providing direct and secure access to the powerful markets of South Asia, the Middle East, and further into Europe. For Kyrgyzstan, the project means the large-scale integration of previously inaccessible mountainous regions into economic activity, the creation of new jobs, and the development of the national economy. We are reducing the route from China to Europe and the Middle East by approximately 900 kilometers, and cutting cargo delivery times by 7–8 days, thereby freeing ourselves from dependence on a limited number of northern or maritime routes.
However, it is not just about reducing distances and cargo delivery times. The railway is becoming an integral element in shaping the new economic geography of Central Asia. It transforms the region from an object of international logistics into an independent organizer of Eurasian transport flows. This fundamentally changes the place of our countries in the global economy.

How does this railway fit into the overall architecture of Eurasian connectivity alongside the Middle Corridor, Trans-Afghan routes, and transport corridors through Iran?

It does not compete with other routes; rather, it forms a unified, synergistic network with them. First, the railway directly connects with the Middle Corridor—that is, the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route—ensuring a seamless flow of goods from China through Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and then across the Caspian Sea towards the Caucasus and Europe.
Second, by linking up with developing Trans-Afghan projects and the transport network leading to Iran, this branch creates a powerful north-south and east-west crossroads. Central Asia is becoming a central logistical and dispatch hub for all continental trade, where flows from China to South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe intersect.
Looking at the broader picture, it becomes evident that linking the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway with the Middle Corridor, the Trans-Afghan route, and transport corridors through Iran forms a fundamentally new system of Eurasian connectivity. Central Asia is no longer dependent on just one or two external routes and gains the ability to flexibly reroute trade flows across multiple corridors simultaneously. This significantly strengthens the region's economic resilience and expands its strategic autonomy. The more complementary transport routes Central Asia has, the greater its capacity to independently chart its own development path, and the less vulnerable our countries' economies are to external geopolitical shocks.
This is precisely why we are talking about much more than just a transport project. It is an investment in the long-term resilience of Central Asia as a unified economic space.

You mentioned that, in the future, this corridor should also connect with the Trans-Afghan route. How is the implementation of the Termez–Naibabad–Maidanshahr–Logar–Kharlachi railway project progressing today, and what impact could the success of this "construction project of the century" have on it?

The Trans-Afghan railway project is also steadily progressing today: active practical work is underway, and following the completion of field surveys, the feasibility study for this large-scale route is expected to be fully finalized by the end of the year.
At the same time, the extraordinary, ahead-of-schedule pace of construction on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway and the massive scale of resources mobilized clearly demonstrate Uzbekistan's ability to successfully implement the most complex cross-border megaprojects. The success of this monumental construction significantly enhances our engineering and organizational capabilities, demonstrates the unwavering political will of the country's leadership, and serves as a powerful catalyst. The practical implementation of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan route sets the highest standards and an exceptional pace, exerting a profoundly positive impact on the advancement and swift realization of the entire Trans-Afghan project, which will provide Central Asia with the most direct access to the ports of the Indian Ocean.

There is a common perception that the railway will serve a narrowly specialized transit function. Will it become a driver for the real economy, industry, and the Fergana Valley?

It is a misconception to view the railway solely as a mere conduit for the transit of foreign cargo. The project is designed as a multimodal and industrial framework. Alongside transit, the railway will become a powerful catalyst for the development of national industry and the processing sector. Priority development zones are being formed around the key nodes of the railway. A prime example is the construction of the large Makmal transshipment station in Kyrgyzstan, which is designed not merely as a technical waypoint, but as a fully-fledged, regional-level transport and logistics hub complete with terminals, warehouses, and production, processing, and service facilities. Industry will benefit from guaranteed, rapid logistics for both raw materials and finished goods, reducing costs and boosting competitiveness.
The project will have a particularly profound impact on the Fergana Valley—a densely populated and economically active region, and the historical heart of Central Asia. The Fergana Valley is receiving a unique historical opportunity to reclaim the role it played centuries ago. It was here that the most vital branches of the Great Silk Road once passed. Today, thanks to the new railway, the region is once again becoming a center of modern Eurasian connectivity. The Fergana Valley is ceasing to be a peripheral part of the transport system and is transforming into a nodal production, logistics, and investment hub for the entire continent.
The railway, running through Kashgar, Torugart, Arpa, Makmal, Jalal-Abad, and Andijan, will link the key points of the macro-region into a single transport corridor, ensuring an influx of investment, the revitalization of cross-border trade, and the elimination of logistical barriers. This fundamentally changes the development model for border territories. Instead of remaining on the periphery, a space for economic growth, industrial cooperation, and high business activity is taking shape.
All of this elevates Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations to a qualitatively new level of alliance. Jointly overcoming the most complex engineering challenges in the high mountains forges absolute trust between our peoples, transforming the border into a zone of peace and prosperity.

Will this corridor be used for passenger transport, and how will this impact tourism and business?

The project is designed from the outset not only for transit but also for the development of passenger services. The technical specifications allow for passenger train speeds of up to 120 km/h in extremely challenging mountainous conditions. In practical terms, this is a true revolution.
Entrepreneurs, engineers, and managers will be able to travel quickly and comfortably between the business centers of China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, creating a unified investment space. It is worth recalling that the number of joint ventures between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan alone has already reached 450, and with the opening of the railway, business activity will increase manifold.
Furthermore, the mountain landscapes of the Tien Shan, gems like Issyk-Kul, and the historic cities of the Fergana Valley, Samarkand, and Bukhara will be linked by a single high-speed rail network. Tourists will be able to cross borders in a matter of hours, which will yield a colossal multiplier effect for the service sector and people-to-people diplomacy.

Concerns are sometimes voiced within the expert community: will this railway turn Central Asia into merely a market for Chinese goods?

Such assessments stem from an outdated perception of Central Asia as exclusively a raw materials region. The reality today is entirely different.
First, the countries of the region are implementing large-scale industrialization programs. In recent years, Central Asia has demonstrated some of the highest rates of industrial growth in Eurasia. In Uzbekistan, for instance, the volume of industrial production has increased more than 1.7 times over the past eight years, and the output of the manufacturing industry has nearly doubled. Today, it is the manufacturing sector that accounts for about 80 percent of the country's industrial production. The most dynamically developing sectors are mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, metallurgy, and textiles. At the same time, the production of high value-added goods and the export of finished industrial products are growing steadily.
Kyrgyzstan is also demonstrating impressive industrial dynamics. By the end of 2025, industrial production grew by 10.6 percent, and output over the past five years has more than doubled. Moreover, 79.7 percent of all industrial output came from the manufacturing sector. The highest growth rates were driven by the food, chemical, pharmaceutical, construction, and processing industries. In parallel, new production capacities, industrial parks, and logistics centers are being created, specifically oriented towards servicing international transport corridors.
Second, the benefits are mutual. Our countries are gaining unprecedentedly fast access to China, the world's largest market with a population of over 1.4 billion people, for the supply of agricultural products, textiles, non-ferrous metals, chemical products, electrical equipment, building materials, and highly processed goods.
Furthermore, during the state visit, the accelerated creation of modern industrial zones, logistics hubs, and production facilities along the entire length of the railway route was discussed in detail. Uzbekistan's initiatives are specifically aimed at developing joint ventures, industrial cooperation, and the localization of new production chains, rather than turning the region into a mere transit corridor.
In effect, a new manufacturing belt of Eurasia is being formed, in which Central Asia becomes not just an end market, but a full participant in global value chains. Therefore, the railway is needed not so much for transporting raw materials, but for servicing the rapidly growing industrial production of our countries. It is becoming not just a transport corridor, but the foundation of a new model for Central Asia's economic development, based on industrial cooperation, high value addition, and integration into the global economy.

What has actually been accomplished in the construction to date, and is there still potential to maximize the project's returns?

The scale of the work already underway is truly impressive and clearly demonstrates that the "construction project of the century," as it is known, has entered its most active practical phase. Today, on the Kyrgyz section of the route, work is simultaneously underway on 83 of the 107 planned sections, with over 10,000 specialists and more than 7,000 units of heavy construction equipment engaged around the clock.
To grasp the scale of the project in the extremely challenging high-altitude conditions of the Tien Shan, where construction is taking place at elevations exceeding 3,000 meters, one only needs to look at the figures. Already, over 19.6 million cubic meters of earth have been moved, with more than 5.26 million cubic meters dedicated to the construction of the key Makmal station.
Simultaneously, a network of 26 tunnels is being constructed. To date, over 13.5 kilometers of main excavations have been bored, and the driving of auxiliary adits is over 51 percent complete. Notably, about a third of the tunneling work is being carried out using modern mechanized methods without the use of explosive techniques. In parallel, construction is underway on 38 of the 50 bridges envisioned in the project—76 percent of the total—where nearly 2,400 foundation piles have already been installed.

In other words, unique engineering challenges are being tackled daily, with virtually no analogues in the region. The project's implementation is simultaneously serving as the region's largest training ground for engineering personnel, the introduction of modern construction technologies, and the development of new competencies in the transport sector. Cooperation with our Chinese partners, who possess unique experience in building highly complex infrastructure facilities, enables our specialists to master advanced technological solutions that will be in high demand for future large-scale projects in Central Asia.
At the same time, the construction of the railway is only the first stage. It is equally important to start creating conditions today that will ensure the new transport corridor delivers maximum economic benefits for all participating countries.
This is precisely why specialists from the Project Office for the Strategy on the Development of International Digital Transport Corridors have developed a series of practical initiatives aimed at enhancing the operational efficiency of the railway. These include the creation of neutral border free technological zones on the Kyrgyz-Chinese and Kyrgyz-Uzbek borders based on the "one-stop, single control" principle, which will significantly reduce border crossing times and optimize customs procedures.

The second initiative involves establishing a modern border free economic zone on the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border, featuring logistics terminals, industrial parks, and processing facilities. This will help transform the transit flow into a source of high value-added creation, new jobs, and joint production chains.
Furthermore, it is proposed to establish a joint engineering and design bureau to serve as a center for developing advanced technical solutions for operating high-altitude railways. Additionally, the introduction of a unified digital transport document is planned, which will integrate the railway administrations and customs authorities of the three countries into a single digital ecosystem.
However, the true value of the project extends far beyond transport infrastructure. The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway is effectively forging a new model of regional development, grounded in the mutual interconnectedness of economies, industrial cooperation, technological partnership, and the shared utilization of our countries' competitive advantages. It creates the conditions for Central Asia to transition from a purely transit function to the role of an independent hub for production, logistics, and value-addition.

The political dimension of the project is equally important. Just a decade ago, implementing such an initiative seemed practically impossible due to accumulated disputes and a deficit of trust among the region's states. Today, thanks to a consistent policy of good-neighborliness, open dialogue, and mutual support, Central Asia is demonstrating a fundamentally new level of regional cooperation.
In this sense, the railway is becoming not only a symbol of transport connectivity but also the physical embodiment of a new political culture in the region—one rooted in trust, pragmatism, and shared responsibility for our common future. This is precisely why the significance of this project will be measured not merely in millions of tons of cargo transported or kilometers of track laid, but above all by the fact that it lays a long-term foundation for the sustainable development, economic independence, and strategic agency of the entirety of Central Asia.

https://dunyo.info/ru/eksklyuziv/kak-zheleznaya-doroga-kitaykyrgyzstanuzbekistan-transformiruet

SR-CENTER.INFO