Uzbekistan policies show the way to developing world

Ahead of his trip to Beijing, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev didn’t desist from pouring lavish praise on China. Not only the Uzbek leader admired Chinese President Xi Jinping’s global development, security and civilisation initiatives as an effort to significantly address the global challenges and accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and inclusive future, he also aligned Tashkent’s vision of regional and international security with Beijing.

Mirziyoyev has paid several visits to China, underscoring Beijing’s growing importance in his economic and development agenda. His objective to strengthen “multifaceted” relations with Beijing further expounds that China will be a centerpiece of his foreign and regional policy and ambition of green transition.

During his October’s trip to Beijing to attend the third Belt and Road Forum, Mirziyoyev expressed gratitude to Xi for the invitation and stressed that China’s investments and number of Chinese companies had increased fivefold and tripled respectively, expecting bilateral trade to exceed $10 billion by the end of 2023.

The Uzbek leader’s campaign worked given the Chinese enterprises with investment participation were the second largest in the country. China accounts for more than one-fifth of Uzbekistan’s foreign trade (21.3%) and bilateral trade in 2023 far exceeded his expectations, reaching $14 billion. Once he put China as one of his top foreign policy priorities, it helped Tashkent sign several agreements with Beijing.

In his last visit, Mirziyoyev called for international unity on the ‘Green Silk Road’ which was first proposed by Xi in Uzbekistan in 2016, and fully supported the green initiative over its potential to shape the agenda for a ‘common green future’. Construction of a 400 megawatts solar photovoltaic power plant by PowerChina and Mirziyoyev’s meetings with Chinese energy companies in October described he was moved by their ability to deploy modern engineering solutions in electricity transmission networks and implement solar, wind and hybrid power projects.

Just last month, the Uzbek leader revealed his warmth for China when he gave plaudits to his strategic partner for completing projects at an ‘astonishing’ pace of as little as nine months. Mirziyoyev continues to hail China’s progress on the large scale joint investments projects, which had helped Tashkent make important strides in developing green energy and create 27 gigawatts of renewable energy generation capacity by 2030.

While cooperation with the ‘undisputed global leader’ in renewable energy would solidify Tashkent’s energy security and environmental sustainability, the first hydrogen plant in the country and region will save some 33 million cubic meters of gas every year, decarbonise heavy industries and add a new engine of growth, raising Tashkent’s international profile.

China and Uzbekistan are promoting active cooperation on infrastructure too. The Chinese-built Angren-Pap railway line, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan transport corridor, and four routes of the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline that pass through Uzbekistan denote a region-wide consensus on developing intra- and inter-regional infrastructure to push trade, enhance connectivity and bring prosperity.

Once finalised, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project will give Central Asia the shortest and most accessible passage to global markets, bringing billions of dollars of investments to the region. Reconstruction projects such as the 87 kilometer A380 highway by China have buttressed Uzbek’s transportation infrastructure, ensuring fast delivery of goods; cooperation on logistics is also making progress.

Electric transport network in Uzbekistan would also get a boost as, according to the Uzbek energy ministry, an agreement was reached between China and Uzbekistan in December to jointly produce 70 centralised and 50,000 non-centralised electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the country by 2033, providing energy to 700,000 EVs. Some 2,500 of these units are expected to be installed by the end of 2024. Even as leading Chinese tech firms such as Huawei, BYD and ZTE are operating in Uzbekistan, Mirziyoyev intends to foster industrial cooperation with these giants to transform the country into a leading technology hub through establishment of high-tech industries and technology parks.

Education cooperation is another area of Uzbekistan’s interest. Construction of education infrastructure, technical training and scholarships by China have drawn the interest of Uzbeks, especially Gen Z, to learn the Mandarin. Through a couple of Confucius Institutes in Samarkand and Tashkent, Mirziyoyev wants to deepen cooperation in the field of Chinese language teaching that would, in turn, help him train a workforce capable of learning and applying China’s development practices.

Over the last three decades, the China-Uzbekistan comprehensive strategic partnership has grown substantially. Marked by high-level political exchanges in the last couple of years, this robust engagement, per Uzbek estimates, has translated into agreements and trade contracts worth $40 billion as Chinese investors continue to invest heavily in green energy, oil and gas, telecommunications and automotive industry among others.

Mirziyoyev’s backing of Xi’s global initiatives and upgradation of ties to “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership” signal that the Uzbek president is dismissive of geopolitics and global great power rivalry and that he will put out all the stops to curry favour from China across the areas of trade and investment, infrastructure development, industrial cooperation, technology transfer, green transition and to kick-start construction of the dormant China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project — a lesson the developing countries should learn to protect their interests.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2024.

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