Business & Economy - The Times Of Central Asia

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International Flights

China–Central Asia Flights Expand as Aviation Booms

Passenger and cargo links between Central Asia and China are expanding, with 117 scheduled weekly flights now connecting Kazakhstan and China, up 52% from a year earlier. Aviation officials from China and the five Central Asian countries are meeting in Tashkent on November 3–5 to discuss opening the market further. Trade between China and Central Asia reached $106.3 billion in 2025, up 12% from the previous year. The expansion of aviation has coincided with rising tourism and the gradual easing of restrictions on airlines across the region. Kazakhstan introduced an "open skies" policy at major airports in 2019, relaxing limits on foreign carriers, while Uzbekistan has also eased access to its market. A Decade of Aviation Growth According to a Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) study published on October 13, Central Asian airlines carried 31.7 million passengers in 2025, almost twice as many as in 2019. Between 2015 and 2025, the number of airline seats available in the region grew by an average of 7.7% annually, nearly three times the global rate. Low-cost airlines accounted for 21% of the region's available seats in 2025, with Kazakhstan's FlyArystan the largest operator in this segment. Air cargo carried by the region's airlines more than quadrupled between 2023 and 2025, reaching 335,700 metric tons. Uzbek operators accounted for approximately 67% of the total. Kazakhstan Leads the Passenger Market Kazakhstan accounted for 48.7% of Central Asia's airline passenger traffic in 2025, the largest share in the region, according to the EDB. By late October 2026, airlines were operating 21 routes between Kazakhstan and China and had carried more than one million passengers between the two countries since the beginning of the year, according to Kazakhstan's Ministry of Transport. In July, the two countries' aviation authorities agreed to increase the permitted number of weekly flights from 124 to 152. The list of approved destinations in China expanded to 11 cities, including Chongqing. The negotiations also addressed the possibility of opening a third air corridor across their shared border to accommodate additional flights. New routes launched this year include FlyArystan's services from Almaty to Xi'an in June and Chongqing in September. Air Astana also began flying between Astana and Guangzhou in June. On October 30, Air Astana and China Southern Airlines signed a strategic partnership agreement intended to make connecting flights between their networks easier. It builds on their existing codeshare arrangements, which allow the airlines to sell tickets on one another's flights. Uzbekistan Expands Passenger and Cargo Flights Uzbekistan has Central Asia's second-largest passenger aviation market. Its airports handled 12.66 million passengers in the first nine months of 2026, up 13% year over year, according to Uzbekistan Airports. Uzbekistan's Ministry of Transport reported in August 2025 that 61 passenger flights and more than 120 cargo and transit flights were operating weekly between Uzbekistan and China. The expansion followed agreements that increased the number of airlines permitted to operate between the two countries and gave carriers greater rights to transport freight through third countries. China Eastern Airlines...

Oil Transit

Kazakhstan Oil Exports: Talks With Azerbaijan on Higher BTC Shipments

Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are discussing ways to increase shipments of Kazakh oil across the Caspian Sea and through the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. In the first nine months of 2026, shipments from Aktau through the pipeline rose 24% year on year to 1.16 million metric tons. At a meeting in Baku on November 3, Askhat Khassenov, chairman of the management board of KazMunayGas (KMG), and Rovshan Najaf, president of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), discussed increasing oil transit through Azerbaijan, according to SOCAR. KMG said the companies were studying geological data from prospective exploration areas in both countries and considering deploying Kazakhstan’s Satti drilling rig at offshore fields in Azerbaijan. The meeting followed another disruption to Kazakhstan’s oil exports through Russia. On November 2, a drone attack on the Samara production and dispatch facility forced a suspension of pumping through the Atyrau–Samara pipeline. Shipments resumed the following day. Earlier attacks had also affected infrastructure belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which handles most of the country’s oil exports. In 2025, Kazakhstan exported 64.8 million metric tons of oil through the CPC and approximately 9.3 million metric tons through the Atyrau–Samara pipeline. Kazakh oil has been transported along the Aktau–Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan route since 2023. Tankers carry the crude across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, where it enters the pipeline running to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, providing an export outlet that bypasses Russia’s pipeline network. In 2024, KMG and SOCAR agreed to gradually increase transit volumes to 2.2 million metric tons annually. Kazakhstan’s target for 2026 is 1.7 million metric tons. On October 1, Daulet Arykbayev, director of the Oil Transportation and Refining Department at Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy, told Platts that Azerbaijan was willing to raise annual transit volumes to 2.7 million metric tons. He said shipments could reach 7 million metric tons a year over the next few years. The BTC pipeline has a capacity of 1.2 million barrels of oil per day, according to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Energy. Platts reported in October that it was carrying around 500,000–600,000 barrels a day. The spare capacity offers room for additional Kazakh shipments, although transporting crude across the Caspian Sea adds to the cost. In its 2025 Annual Report, KMG described negotiations with SOCAR over lower tariffs and efforts to assess how Kazakh crude affects the quality of the Azeri Light export blend. That year, shipments from Aktau to Baku were suspended from August to October because of technical restrictions related to oil contamination in the BTC system. According to KMG, 1.3 million metric tons were transported along the trans-Caspian route during the year, 7% less than in 2024. Azerbaijani statistics show that total oil shipments through the BTC pipeline fell 8.3% year on year to 18.86 million metric tons in January–September 2026, despite increased shipments of Kazakh crude.

Tungsten

Developer of Kazakhstan Tungsten Projects Drops Merger and Plans U.S. Listing

Cove Kaz, the U.S. company developing two major tungsten deposits in Kazakhstan, has dropped its planned merger with Skyline Builders. It now plans to list its shares directly on a U.S. stock exchange in the first half of 2027. The change comes alongside a $32 million investment commitment intended to fund work on the projects. Together, the announcements reshape how Cove Kaz plans to finance development and bring its Kazakhstan business to public investors. The companies announced the mutual termination of their merger agreement on November 2. American Ventures has committed to buying four million Cove Kaz shares at $8 each, implying a company valuation of $1.97 billion. The investment still needs to close. “The additional capital will fund engineering and construction-related work to shorten our time to production,” said Cove Kaz Executive Chairman Pini Althaus. Under its new listing plan, Cove Kaz intends to become a Delaware corporation and adopt the name Kaz Resources Inc. It also plans to bring other affiliated Kazakhstan assets into the company, subject to regulatory approval. The company has not named an exchange and plans to file a registration statement with U.S. securities regulators. Skyline would remain an investor under the revised arrangements. In its own announcement, it said its existing investment and outstanding loan would be exchanged for shares in Cove Kaz. Its stake would be approximately 26% after the new funding closes. Skyline said the revised arrangement should allow its shareholders to realize the value of their investment faster than the merger. The underlying mining venture centers on Northern Katpar and Upper Kairakty in Kazakhstan’s Karaganda Region. Cove Kaz acquired 70% of Severniy Katpar LLP, which holds the project licenses, in April. Kazakhstan’s national mining company, Tau-Ken Samruk, retains the remaining 30%. [caption id="attachment_59844" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] The Northern Katpar tungsten project site in Kazakhstan’s Karaganda Region. Image: Cove Kaz Capital Group.[/caption] The original merger agreement was intended to create a listed supplier of tungsten and other critical minerals for U.S. customers. Tungsten is used in industrial tools, aerospace and defense equipment, making alternative supplies important to Washington’s efforts to reduce dependence on China. Chinese companies already have a foothold in Kazakhstan’s tungsten sector. A $300 million processing plant opened in Almaty Region in November 2024, with Jiangxi Copper among its participants. Cove Kaz’s planned mine and refinery would establish another supply route, focused on U.S. customers. Work at Northern Katpar has moved into engineering and feasibility studies. Cove Kaz’s August update said the definitive feasibility study began in July and was expected to finish before the end of 2027. It covers the mine and a planned refinery in Kazakhstan that would produce ammonium paratungstate, a material used in tungsten manufacturing. The study will help establish the costs and design needed for a final investment decision. It will also support assessments by potential lenders, including U.S. government agencies. Cove Kaz has cited earlier studies indicating potential combined annual production of about 12,000 metric tons from the two deposits, equivalent to roughly 15% of...

Household Spending

Food Spending in Kazakhstan Tops Half of Consumer Budgets

Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy, ranks among the ten countries with the highest shares of consumer spending devoted to food in an international comparison. National figures show that food purchases continue to consume more than half of household consumer budgets despite rising cash incomes. According to international statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), residents of Kazakhstan spent approximately 42% of their consumer budgets on food in 2025. The USDA measure covers food and nonalcoholic beverages purchased for consumption at home, excluding restaurant meals, alcohol, and tobacco. Higher shares were recorded in Nigeria, Myanmar, and Laos, as well as neighboring Uzbekistan. By comparison, food accounted for roughly a quarter of consumer spending in Russia and 6.4% in the U.S. Investment company Halyk Finance noted in a June 2025 analysis that Kazakhstan ranked sixth in the USDA comparison for 2023. Kazakhstan's Bureau of National Statistics uses a different food category, which also includes alcohol and tobacco. In the first quarter of 2026, this category accounted for 48.6% of household cash expenditures and approximately 54% of consumer spending. Consumer spending covers purchases of goods and services, while total cash expenditures also include debt repayments, taxes, and transfers to other households. Nonfood goods represented 19.9% of cash expenditures, services 21.7%, and another 7.6% went toward repaying loans and other debts. Halyk Finance found that this national food category had accounted for more than half of household cash expenditures for five consecutive years by early 2025. Since January 2026, however, the bureau has classified spending at cafes and restaurants as services rather than food expenditures. A decline in the reported food share compared with previous years therefore cannot automatically be interpreted as an improvement in living standards. The first-quarter share varied sharply by region, reaching 57.5% in the Zhetysu region, 56% in the Mangystau region, and 54.7% in the East Kazakhstan region. The figure was 41.2% in the capital, Astana, and 47.7% in Almaty. These differences reflect household incomes, food prices, the cost of services, and consumption patterns. Annual spending on food and nonalcoholic beverages in Kazakhstan averaged $1,292 per person in 2025, an increase of 13.9% from the previous year. Meat and meat products accounted for the largest share of the food budget in the second quarter of 2026. The bureau's household spending figures show that an average household spent 61,248 tenge, approximately $135, per month on them, about one-third of its food and nonalcoholic beverage expenditures. Bread and cereals accounted for about 14%, while dairy products represented approximately 12.6%. In the first quarter of 2026, average per capita cash income was 399,819 tenge, approximately $880 over three months, or about $294 per month. In local currency, the figure rose 12.9% year over year, but this was a nominal increase that did not account for inflation. In September, annual inflation was 9.3%, while food prices rose 8.5% year over year. For lower-income households, even moderate increases in the prices of basic groceries can significantly reduce the amount available for other needs....

Alatau City

Kazakhstan Signs Alatau City Agreements With $1.3 Billion Investment Potential

Kazakhstan has signed nine agreements with international partners in London to support the development of Alatau City in Almaty Region. The government estimates their combined investment potential at $1.3 billion. The agreements cover infrastructure construction and the development of education and healthcare. The agreements were signed at the Alatau City Investment Roundtable, which launched Kazakhstan’s European investment tour. The delegation was led by Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev. Representatives of more than 70 companies, banks, and investment funds attended the meeting, including JPMorgan Chase, BP, AstraZeneca, and Brookfield Asset Management. Plans under consideration include opening educational institutions in Alatau City with the participation of the University of Exeter, Brighton College, and Repton Group. Cooperation with AstraZeneca and Crescent Meditours covers healthcare projects and scientific exchanges. Discussions on financing energy, transport, and utility infrastructure were held with the London Stock Exchange, Société Générale, J.P. Morgan, Brookfield, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Alatau City has a special legal regime established by a constitutional law dated May 8, 2026, which allows principles of the law of England and Wales to be applied to certain legal relationships. Meetings with international law firms addressed the establishment of an investment court, international arbitration, public-private partnerships, and digital asset regulation. Alatau is located near Almaty, along transport routes connecting Kazakhstan and China. The project envisions the development of industrial, logistics, business, and residential districts. According to the government, the city’s investment portfolio includes 67 projects worth approximately $6.9 billion, with an estimated 55,000 jobs to be created. Another 28 engineering and transport infrastructure projects, valued at 35.3 billion tenge, cover the construction of roads and electricity, gas, and water supply networks. Following the London meetings, the Kazakh delegation will continue its investment discussions in Germany. Alatau City was also presented to American investors at Kazakhstan Finance Day in New York. Discussions there focused on the city’s special legal regime, financial instruments, and private capital participation in its development.

Road Infrastructure

Osinovsky Pass Bypass Opens in Kazakhstan After Years of Delays

A new road bypassing the Osinovsky Pass in eastern Kazakhstan opened to traffic on October 30, offering motorists an alternative to a route frequently subject to winter travel restrictions. The bypass's centerpiece is a 175-meter bridge across the Pikhtovka River, rising up to 45 meters above a gorge. The construction and reconstruction project is valued at 20.9 billion tenge, approximately $46 million. The new bypass, approximately 12 kilometers long, allows motorists to avoid a dangerous winding section of the highway from Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk), the administrative center of the East Kazakhstan region, toward Altai and Katon-Karagay. It forms part of a 28-kilometer section where the main reconstruction work has been completed. The previous route ran along a narrow mountain road with sharp turns. Built in the 1940s, it was closed to trucks with trailers and semitrailers during winter. Snowstorms and avalanche prevention operations could lead to complete road closures, while rockfalls posed a danger in summer. Darkhan Imanashev, chairman of the national road company KazAvtoZhol, told journalists that the bypass shortens the journey and would allow trucks to use the route in winter. The new road is 13 meters wide, compared with approximately six meters on the previous section. The extra width will make it easier for large vehicles traveling in opposite directions to pass each other. The bridge follows a curved alignment designed to accommodate the mountainous terrain. It has seven spans and eight supports, with 79 reinforced concrete beams installed across the structure. Construction work along the route began in 2017. The project was repeatedly delayed, with work suspended over land-use issues before resuming in 2023. Previous contractors also failed to complete the project, leading to legal disputes, Imanashev told Ulysmedia.kz. Crews had to cut a road through rocky terrain, prepare sites for heavy machinery, and transport materials along temporary dirt access roads. These routes often became difficult to navigate after rainfall. Nigmatulla Abdulkhakov, deputy director for bridge construction at contractor OblShygysZhol, described the scale of the excavation work beneath the bridge. "The mountainous terrain here is extremely challenging. We had to move around 100,000 cubic meters of earth just beneath the bridge. This involved excavating foundation pits, removing soil, backfilling, and preparing foundations for the supports. We also had to create special platforms to install the structures, then clear those areas to prepare for the next stages of construction," Abdulkhakov explained. Engineers considered filling the gorge with an earth embankment instead of building a bridge. According to Abdulkhakov, that option would have required moving several million cubic meters of earth. It would also have involved installing a drainage culvert several hundred meters long beneath the embankment. "The question immediately arose of how such a culvert would be maintained and cleaned. That is why building a bridge proved to be the best option. Yes, it was a complex project that required considerable effort, but we managed to complete it," Abdulkhakov said. The final bridge span was installed on September 20, followed by concreting and road paving. According to the...