The Zhanatas 100 MW Wind Power Plant in Kazakhstan Photo: Courtesy of China Power International Holding

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to chair a virtual summit on Tuesday commemorating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and five Central Asian countries, an event observers said will lay the ground for more economic and trade cooperation. 

This year marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and five Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Trade between China and Central Asian nations has witnessed a boom over the past 30 years - surging by more than 100 times during the period, data from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) showed.

In 1992, China's trade with the five Central Asian countries only totaled $460 million; 30 years later, that figure is expected to exceed $40 billion. Moreover, the stock of China's direct investment in the five nations has exceeded $14 billion.

"The 100-times level is indeed a big jump, indicating a complementary bilateral trade structure," He Zhenwei, head of the China Overseas Development Association, told the Global Times on Monday.

He said that booming agricultural exchanges were the main contribution to increasing bilateral trade over the past 30 years.

"China's changing import structure due to trade friction with the US and Australia - its main import sources for farm products previously - has indeed offered immense opportunities for Central Asian countries," He said. 

As a significant point of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and with the development of China-Europe freight trains, trade between China and the Central Asian nations is set to increase further in the years ahead, analysts said.

One of the main barriers to the growth of bilateral trade in previous years was logistics generally and cold-chain transportation in particular, He said, while increased connectivity under the BRI will be a key driver for trade growth.

The MOFCOM and the economic and trade departments of the five Central Asian countries reached a broad consensus earlier this month on jointly expanding cooperation in trade, investment, digital, the green economy and other fields.

Work is already in progress. For instance, a major China-invested green project under the BRI framework is the Zhanatas 100 megawatt wind power plant in Kazakhstan.

The project, jointly developed by China Power International Holding and Kazakhstan-based partner Visor with a total investment of $150 million, has the largest installed capacity of any project of its kind in Central Asia.

The project went into full operation on June 20, 2021 and is expected to provide South Kazakhstan with 350 gigawatt-hours of clean power each year, equivalent to demand from 1 million households, China Power International Holding said in a statement it sent to the Global Times on Monday.

With 40 wind turbines, the project is expected to save roughly 110,000 metric tons of standard coal annually and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which will play an important demonstration role for Kazakhstan's environmental protection, the company said.

"We're considering a new-energy cooperation center in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, aiming for more new-energy cooperation projects with Central Asian countries, and promoting new-energy development in the region," He said.

The MOFCOM is willing to work with relevant government bodies in the five countries in Central Asia to enhance cooperation and bring economic and trade cooperation to a new level, Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said at the China-Central Asia trade and business cooperation forum held online on January 17.