Silk Road - The Times Of Central Asia

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Turkmenistan aims to become the heart of Great Silk Road in 2018

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.

Silk Road China Tourism Kazakhstan

‘Traveling along the Great Silk Road of Kazakhstan’ festival to start Nov 10

ALMATY (TCA) — The Ministry of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan together with administrations of Almaty, Zhambyl and South-Kazakhstan regions will organize the International Festival "Traveling along the Great Silk Road of Kazakhstan" from November 10 to 16 with the aim of attracting international and domestic tourists and integrating the historical route of the Silk Road Kazakhstan into the world tourist space, the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan reports. Continue reading

Silk Road Central Asia Tourism

Tourism a driver of development in Central Asia — World Bank

BISHKEK (TCA) — The Central Asia region hosted about 11 million visitors in 2014, and is gaining more attention as an emerging tourism destination, with strong potential for further development under the common brand of the Great Silk Road. But the countries in the region need to further collaborate in order to enable the growth of sustainable tourism and to leverage their countless cultural heritage sites and natural assets, the World Bank wrote in an article posted on its website. Continue reading

Mass Media Silk Road Turkmenistan

New book of Turkmenistan’s president focuses on Great Silk Road

ASHGABAT (TCA) — A presentation of a new book by Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, “Turkmenistan – the heart of the Great Silk Road,” took place in Ashgabat with participation of members of the Turkmen Government, representatives of foreign diplomatic missions and international organizations, the public and mass media, the Golden Age Newspaper reported on October 21. Continue reading

Transport Eurasian Trade Silk Road Transit China Central Asia Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan a key hub along Eurasian transport corridor — deputy FM

ASTANA (TCA) — Thanks to projects like the New Silk Road and the Eurasian Economic Union, major transit routes between Europe and China now run through Kazakhstan, Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko said at the EU-Eurasia-China Business Summit that opened in Athens, Greece on October 9. He said that Kazakhstan is the largest country on the planet that has no access to the open sea. But rather than accept this as a disadvantage, Kazakhstan has decided to use its location in the heart of Eurasia to unlock trade routes for the benefit of the country and the world, the Kazakh foreign ministry reported on its website. “Our aim is to enhance our own transport and transit capabilities, stimulate the growth of trade flows across the country and ensure our competitiveness in the global services market. This will in turn make it easier and quicker to trade between east and west, to create employment and opportunity along the route and spread regional and global prosperity,” Vassilenko said, adding that this is why Kazakhstan has been actively implementing its Nurly Zhol program, which is aimed at modernizing the country’s transport infrastructure. Nurly Zhol is designed to turn Kazakhstan into a key Eurasian transport and logistics hub, connecting the North, South, West and East. Another major project that shares similar goals and ambitions to the Nurly Zhol program is China's Belt and Road initiative, Vassilenko said, as both projects are aimed at facilitating trade, eliminating barriers, ensuring transit and developing a reliable transport and logistics infrastructure. He said that over 2,500 kilometres of new railways and 4,000 kilometres of new roads, including the Western China – Western Europe highway, which will be completed this year, have been or are being built across Kazakhstan. This has been coupled with the new logistics infrastructure needed for a massive increase in freight. Container traffic across Kazakhstan from China westwards and from Europe eastwards has increased by 100 times in five years, to 2016. Around 25 massive freight trains every week now pass through Kazakhstan from China to Europe. Rail container traffic from China to Europe and backwards across Kazakhstan has already doubled between 2015 and 2016 but is expected to increase almost eight fold again by 2020. Kazakhstan already accounts for 70 percent of transit traffic passing from China to Europe and vice versa, Vassilenko said. An important element of the Eurasian transcontinental corridor is the Kazakh-Chinese terminal in the Chinese seaport of Lianyungang. The port is the main point of consolidation of cargo flows to and from Kazakhstan and the key transit port for shipment of goods to and from East and South-East Asia. In addition, special economic zone Khorgos in the east of Kazakhstan on the border with China and Aktau seaport in the west on the Caspian Sea are important logistic gates for the new Silk Road. From Aktau, raw materials and goods flow not just to Europe but also Russia in the north and Iran to the south. The Kazakh Deputy...

Silk Road Railway Transit Kazakhstan Transport

Kazakhstan and Latvia to increase rail transit from China to Europe

ASTANA (TCA) — An Agreement on Strategic Partnership between Kazakhstan’s national railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) and JSC Latvijas dzelzceļš (Latvian Railway) was signed on September 29 in Riga, KTZ’s press office said. Continue reading