BISHKEK (TCA) — The White House has called on Pakistan to do more to fight terrorism and said it will announce “specific actions” within days to pressure Islamabad, after U.S. President Donald Trump on January 1 threatened to cut off billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of being a safe haven for extremists the U.S. is hunting in Afghanistan, RFE/RL reported.

Continue reading

TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbekistan’s foreign trade grew 16.7 percent on-year in the first nine months of 2017 and amounted to US $20 billion, according to figures released by the country’s Central Bank.

Continue reading

ASHGABAT (TCA) — “By building new motor and rail roads, sea ports and bridges, our country is reviving the Great Silk Road in the third millennium,” President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov said in his New Year address to the Turkmen people, the State Information Agency of Turkmenistan reported.

The president said that neutral Turkmenistan is making a big contribution to the development and strengthening of political, trade, economic, and humanitarian ties in the international arena, in line with the country’s motto for the year 2018 — “Turkmenistan — the heart of the Great Silk Road”.

Over the recent years Turkmenistan has implemented such big projects as the construction of the new international airport in the capital, Ashgabat, and the first phase of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway. The country is currently building a sea port in the city of Turkmenbashi on the Caspian coast and a new motor road from Ashgabat to Turkmenbashi. Turkmenistan is building convenient and safe international rail, motor, air, and maritime transport corridors, providing for sustainable development of the region, strengthening regional cooperation, and increasing regional trade, the president said.

Turkmenistan is turning into an important rail crossroad and a transport and transit hub of Eurasia. Turkmen railway builders are laying a railroad from Turkmenistan’s railway station of Serhatabat to Afghanistan’s town of Turgundi, which will connect Afghanistan to the transport and logistics system of Turkmenistan and the entire Central Asia region.

This project will help Turkmenistan become a key transport and logistics hub in the region, the Turkmen leader said.

ASTANA (TCA) — In the first half of 2018, state bodies in Kazakhstan will check more than 30,000 business entities, the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan reported on its website.

Continue reading

ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan’s railways in 2017 transported 8.9 million tons of grain, including 5.8 million tons for export, and 3.2 million tons of flour, including 2.4 million tons for export, according to Oralkhan Kulakov, the head of JSC KTZ-Freight Transportation, a subdivision of Kazakhstan’s national railways company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ).

Continue reading

KABUL (TCA) — Afghanistan and Uzbekistan will start transiting goods across their border in the near future, officials from the Afghan Ministry of Commerce and Industries said, adding that delegations from the two countries are working to make this happen, TOLOnews reports.

Continue reading