Radio Liberty reports that China’s massive One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project aims to connect the world like never before, using land and sea routes to form trade links across Asia and Europe and down to Africa. It’s an extremely ambitious project that will take many years to realize but already OBOR has many people excited about the economic possibilities to come.
Among the billions of people who could benefit immensely from OBOR are the roughly 65 million residents of Central Asia. But being part of OBOR is not necessarily a guarantee for a better future.
To look at OBOR in Central Asia, and some of the potential advantages and disadvantages, Radio Liberty assembled a panel to review the situation.
The numbers for OBOR are reportedly genuinely unprecedented — $1 trillion of investment with routes potentially reaching some 44 countries with more than half the population of the planet. This being the initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping is reportedly something that the Chinese leadership is committed to and it does involve significant funding for Central Asia in particular, and governments, at least in Central Asia, are very enthusiastic about funding flowing into major infrastructure projects.
OBOR has already started in Central Asia. The oil pipeline from Kazakhstan, the natural gas pipelines from Turkmenistan, and a road network from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan already lead to China.
These projects and others were started, and some completed, before the autumn of 2013 when Beijing first articulated the OBOR project. In 2013, trade between China and the five Central Asian nations was reportedly $50 billion already, while, for example, trade between Russia and the Central Asian countries was only $30 billion.
That trend has only become stronger as Russia’s economy has weakened, limiting Russian investment potential. China, meanwhile, has continued to vigorously pursue OBOR. In February this year, the first cargo train from China arrived in Iran after passing through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan along new railways in the latter two countries. In September, the first train from China to Afghanistan arrived after crossing through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
According to the plan, the part of the route that runs through Central Asia should continue west through northern Iran into Turkey. Central Asia could benefit greatly from this new route for shipping goods to, and receiving goods from countries with access to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea.
But already parts of Central Asia are seeing some of the negative aspects that come with these Chinese-funded projects. There are some concerns regarding the flow of migrants from China as Chinese companies like to use their own people, bring in Chinese labor to get a job done.
That has led to problems in the oil fields of western Kazakhstan where Chinese employees work, in mining areas in Kyrgyzstan where Chinese employees work, and along various parts of the roads being constructed in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan where locals work alongside Chinese workers. Sometimes the problems are caused by rumors of the Chinese receiving better wages, sometimes the lack of the locals’ ability to communicate with the Chinese workers has led to fights.
Chinese farmers are also tending agricultural land in Tajikistan vacated by local farmers who left to find work in Russia. A proposal to lease farmland in Kazakhstan earlier this year sparked the largest protests seen there in some 20 years, when rumors spread that Chinese farmers would lease portions of Kazakhstan’s farmland.
And there are also environmental concerns. Chinese companies do not have a good track record when it comes to ecological considerations. In Kyrgyzstan and in Tajikistan recently, new cement plants developed by China are reportedly polluting industries and can have a really negative effect on local people. Refineries in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan built or operated by Chinese companies have also received complaints from local administrations and residents.
