China - The Times Of Central Asia

Viewing results 1 - 6 of 755

Natural gas

Turkmenistan Advances Galkynysh Gas Field Development to Increase Exports to China

Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang and Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, Tukmenistan's former President and the current Chairman of its highest representative body, the Halk Maslahaty, have launched the fourth phase of industrial development of the Galkynysh gas field in Mary region. Located about 400 km southeast of Ashgabat, the Galkynysh field has been producing natural gas since 2013 and is considered one of the world’s largest in terms of reserves. The British consulting firm GaffneyCline estimates the reserves of Galkynysh, together with the neighboring fields Garakol and Yashlar, at 27.4 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. On April 16, the State Concern Turkmengas and China’s CNPC Amudarya Petroleum Company Ltd. signed a contract for the turnkey construction of the fourth phase of the field’s development. The project includes the drilling of production wells and the construction of a gas processing facility with a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters of commercial gas per year. According to industry publication Nebit-Gaz, the Galkynysh field is being developed in phases. The first phase, which included the construction of three gas processing plants with a total capacity of 30 billion cubic meters per year, is currently operational. The second, third, and fourth phases are planned for the near future. Upon full development, the field’s gross annual production could reach nearly 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas. The Galkynysh field serves as the main resource base for Turkmen gas exports to China. China remains the largest buyer of Turkmen natural gas. Three lines (A, B, and C) of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline system currently deliver approximately 40 billion cubic meters of gas annually. With the planned commissioning of a fourth line (Line D), export volumes are expected to increase to around 65 billion cubic meters per year. The resource base of Galkynysh is a key factor in the planned construction of Line D, which is expected to significantly increase gas supplies to China. According to Guvanch Agajanov, Vice-Chairman of Turkmenistan's Cabinet of Ministers, total Turkmen gas exports to China have exceeded 462 billion cubic meters over the past 20 years. The Galkynysh field has also been designated as the resource base for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, which is under construction and is expected to have a capacity of 33 billion cubic meters per year.

Agriculture

Kazakhstan and China’s Snow Valley Agree to Build $100-200 Million Potato Processing Complex

The administration of Kazakhstan’s Pavlodar region has signed a memorandum of cooperation with China’s Snow Valley Agricultural Group Co. Ltd. to implement a major investment project focused on potato processing, regional authorities have announced. The document outlines plans to establish a modern agro-industrial complex with an annual processing capacity of between 100,000 and 200,000 tonnes. The agreement was signed by regional governor Asain Baikhanov and representatives of the Chinese side, Wang Dengshe and Zhang Fan. The project is aimed at producing high value-added products. It includes the construction of a research and breeding center for potato cultivation and seed production, the launch of French fries manufacturing, and the development of storage, logistics, and distribution infrastructure. Total investment is estimated at between $100 million and $200 million. Regional authorities expect the project to create a full production and supply chain, reduce the shortage of deep-processing capacity in agriculture, and generate new jobs. “The regional administration is ready to support initiatives aimed at creating high-tech, high value-added production,” Baikhanov said. Founded in 2007 in Zhangjiakou, China, Snow Valley is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding covering the entire production cycle from potato breeding and cultivation to deep processing. The company processes more than 800,000 tonnes of raw materials annually, including over 400,000 tonnes of frozen products. Its total storage capacity reaches 700,000 tonnes. The company is also engaged in breeding programs and has developed more than 80 potato varieties. Its production utilizes advanced technologies, including pulsed electric field (PEF) systems, which improve product quality and reduce oil consumption. Snow Valley exports its products to more than 40 countries. Following the visit, Chairman Wang Dengshe highlighted the strong potential of Pavlodar region and confirmed the company’s interest in long-term cooperation. “The Chinese company has confirmed its readiness to implement the project using modern technologies and local resources, while the regional administration has pledged comprehensive support, including infrastructure development, provision of resource bases, and administrative assistance,” the regional press service said. The project comes amid previous restrictions on potato exports. Kazakhstan earlier introduced a temporary ban on shipments outside the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) due to rising domestic prices. In autumn 2025, authorities also did not rule out reinstating such measures, although the market currently remains stable.

China

Beyond the Belt and Road: China’s New Playbook in Central Asia

In the Kyzylorda Region, near the town of Shieli, the silos and conveyor belts of a Chinese-backed plant rise out of the fine brown dust that dominates the landscape. It is the kind of project the Belt and Road was supposed to deliver in Central Asia: heavy industry, fixed capital, and a visible mark on the landscape. But it is also a reminder that China’s role in the region has become narrower, more contested, and less sweeping than the old rhetoric suggested. In photographs, the Gezhouba Cement Plant looks like a self-contained industrial island on the steppe. For nearby villagers, it became something else: a source of jobs and local prestige for some, but also of years of complaints about dust clouds and whether the state was quicker to defend a flagship Chinese-backed project than the people living beside it. Projects like the plant in Shieli also help explain why views of China across Central Asia remain mixed. Beijing is seen as a source of trade, investment, and technology, but that promise is tempered in some places by concerns over transparency, environmental costs, and who really benefits when a project arrives. China has become Central Asia’s dominant trading partner, but investment has not kept pace with the surge in commerce. The gap says a lot about how Beijing now works in the region: with a sharper focus on sectors that matter to its long-term influence. In 2025, trade in goods between China and the five Central Asian states reached $106.3 billion, up 12% year on year. Chinese exports to the region totaled $71.2 billion, while imports from Central Asia reached $35.1 billion. Trade has grown fast enough to reshape the region’s external balance, but long-term investment has been far more selective. Over 2005–2025, the five Central Asian states accounted for about 3% of China’s global overseas investment and construction total. The picture changes once direct investment is separated from trade and construction contracts. China’s FDI stock in the five Central Asian states stood at about $36 billion by mid-2025. Roughly 90% was concentrated in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The structure of that capital has also changed. Extractive industries still accounted for 46% of the portfolio, but manufacturing and energy together made up more than one third, and greenfield projects rose from 43% to 60%. China has not poured money into Central Asia on the scale once implied by early Belt and Road rhetoric. Instead, it has invested in sectors that strengthen its industrial position. Kazakhstan remains at the center of this relationship. It is China’s biggest commercial partner in Central Asia, and the main destination for Chinese capital in the region. Kazakhstan-China trade reached $43.8 billion in 2024. The country’s portfolio of projects with Chinese participation includes 224 ventures worth about $66.4 billion. Some are still at the planning stage, but the range of projects is telling. Recent developments have included a hydrogen energy technology innovation center in Almaty and a large wind farm with electricity storage. Kazakhstan still sells...

Hydrogen Energy

Kazakhstan and China Launch Hydrogen Energy Technology Innovation Center

Kazakhstan and China have expanded cooperation in clean energy with the launch of the China-Kazakhstan Hydrogen Energy Technology Innovation Center at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty on April 9. The center is part of Kazakhstan’s strategy to build a modern technological base linking science, education, and industry in support of the country’s transition to low-carbon energy. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov highlighted the importance of international partnerships in the development of the energy sector. “Hydrogen energy is one of the strategic priorities for the development of the energy sector. The Concept adopted in 2024 laid the legal and economic foundation for the creation of a new industry aimed at decarbonizing the economy. The new center should become a key platform for training next-generation engineers, conducting applied research, and rapidly introducing innovations into production,” Akkenzhenov said. As part of the ceremony, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Energy China International Corporation signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding outlining the center’s operational framework. The agreement includes expanding scientific and technical cooperation, facilitating technology transfer, and promoting academic exchange. The partners also plan to conduct joint research, test hydrogen technologies, and launch pilot projects, with a particular focus on the commercialization of innovations and their integration into Kazakhstan’s industrial sector. The development of hydrogen energy is a key element of the global transition to cleaner energy systems. According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy, the country has significant potential in this field due to its natural resource base and growing renewable energy capacity. Cooperation with Chinese technology partners is expected to strengthen Kazakhstan’s position in emerging energy markets and support industrial modernization. During the ceremony, Zhanseit Tuimebayev, chairman of the board and rector of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, highlighted the evolving role of universities as drivers of economic and technological development. “Universities today are not only centers for training specialists but also key drivers of economic growth, technological development, and national competitiveness. Al-Farabi National University has consistently pursued this mission, transforming itself into a new type of university, one that not only educates, but also develops technologies, shapes markets, and acts as a full-fledged partner to the state and industry,” Tuimebayev said.

Automotive Industry

Kyrgyzstan Seeks to Increase Automobile Imports from China

On April 8, the National Investment Agency of Kyrgyzstan and A-CAR (Chuan Yi LLC) signed a memorandum on investment cooperation in the automotive industry, including the supply and sale of new Chinese cars in Kyrgyzstan and the development of service infrastructure. The Chinese company plans to establish a dealer network and open an official representative office for Central Asia. A-CAR supplies vehicles from leading Chinese and international brands and provides a full range of services, including technical maintenance, vehicle registration, and insurance. A significant portion of vehicles imported from China to Kyrgyzstan are re-exported to Russia rather than remaining in the local market. The duty-free regime for electric vehicles in Kyrgyzstan has significantly boosted imports of Chinese electric cars. As a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Kyrgyzstan benefits from an annual quota allowing the duty-free import of up to 15,000 electric vehicles. Sergey Tselikov, director of Russian automotive analytics agency Autostat, wrote on his Telegram channel that Kyrgyzstan remains the second-largest import channel for new passenger cars into Russia after China. He said 84% of the new passenger cars imported through Kyrgyzstan were manufactured in China, including Chinese, European, and Japanese brands. According to Autostat, Kyrgyzstan is the largest supplier of new passenger cars to Russia among EAEU member countries. In 2025, 53,600 new passenger cars were imported to Russia from Kyrgyzstan, followed by 17,100 cars from Belarus, 11,000 from Kazakhstan, and 344 from Armenia. Kyrgyzstan is also seeking to collaborate with Chinese companies to develop electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. In late March, Energy Minister Taalaibek Ibrayev visited China, where he held a series of meetings with energy and technology companies involved in EV infrastructure development. Negotiations focused on cooperation in energy infrastructure, including the development of EV charging stations and energy storage systems in Kyrgyzstan. These initiatives align with government efforts to promote environmentally friendly transport and reduce air pollution in Bishkek and other major cities. The number of EVs in Kyrgyzstan has been rising steadily, with more than 200 electric vehicles imported into the country daily under a value-added tax (VAT) exemption scheme, according to official figures. Despite this growth, EVs still account for a small share of the country’s total vehicle fleet, about 0.8%, or approximately 15,200 vehicles, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology, and Technical Supervision.

Oil and Gas

Kazakhstan Gains Weight in China’s Energy System

The newly extended U.S. waiver for Russian oil transit through Kazakhstan and the reported giant onshore hydrocarbon discovery in western Kazakhstan point in different directions, yet they belong in the same analytical frame. One concerns an existing flow that already reaches China through working infrastructure, while the other concerns a possible future source that has not yet reached the stage of commercially proven reserves. Together, they mark a change in Kazakhstan’s position. The country is increasingly important to China both as a corridor and as a possible larger upstream partner. The U.S. waiver now runs until March 19, 2027. Kazakhstan is not a giant direct oil supplier to China in the way that Russia or Saudi Arabia is; China’s import structure is broader. But Kazakh-origin oil shipments, Russian transit oil, and adjacent energy links now constitute a single, more complex relationship. According to official Chinese sources, oil imported from Kazakhstan enters mainly through the China-Kazakhstan crude pipeline. More Than Kazakhstan’s Own Barrels Kazakhstan-China Pipeline LLP reported that in 2024, the Atasu-Alashankou route carried 1.2 million tons of oil and 9.989 million tons of transit oil, against a design capacity of 20 million tons a year. Official Chinese figures sharpen the point. By the end of 2024, total cumulative throughput on the pipeline had reached 280 million tons, including 19.139 million tons in 2024, while cumulative crude imported from Kazakhstan was lower. Kazakhstan’s significance to China is therefore larger than Kazakhstan’s own volumes would suggest, because the route carries more than Kazakhstan’s own oil. A glance at Europe keeps that proportion straight. Eurostat reports that Kazakhstan supplied 12.7% of the European Union’s petroleum oil imports in 2025. The European External Action Service said that Kazakhstan accounted for 10.9% of EU oil imports in the first quarter of 2024. This made it the bloc’s third-largest supplier in that period, and a more important direct oil supplier to Europe than to China. The significance of Kazakhstan’s geographic proximity to China becomes clearer when one looks beyond crude oil. Kazakhstan is not only a direct oil supplier, but also a transit corridor for multiple China-bound energy flows. The Kazakhstan-China oil pipeline is one of China’s major import routes. At the same time, while Kazakhstan’s own gas exports to China remain limited due to rising domestic demand, gas from Turkmenistan and Russia both pass through its territory. Oil and gas do not form a single operational system, but together they show that China’s energy connection with Kazakhstan extends beyond one commodity and beyond Kazakhstan’s own barrels. The Source Side May Be Growing In this context, the reported discovery on the Zhylyoi carbonate platform makes a difference because it widens the source side of the relationship without changing present flows. According to public statements by KazMunayGas officials, the Karaton, Kazhygali, and Zhylyoi formation has resource potential of 4.7 billion metric tons of hydrocarbons, and the broader Zhylyoi carbonate reservoir may hold as much as 20 billion metric tons of oil equivalent. The field is onshore in...