In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the titanic New Silk Roads project, officially called the Belt and Road Initiative. Since then, some 150 countries have joined this initiative aimed, among other things, at building roads, railways and ports to promote trade with China. Ten years later, The duty visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, two countries at the heart of these new trade routes. Seventh in a series of eight travel journals.
When we talk about the Chinese presence in Uzbekistan, one project inevitably comes up on everyone’s lips: the tunnels drilled by the China Railway Tunnel Group at an altitude of 2,268 meters in the Kamchik pass and crossing the breathtaking Qurama mountains.
The project, which arouses both enthusiasm and admiration, made it possible to connect the capital Tashkent to the fertile Ferghana Valley, which is home to the country’s second city, Namangan. A key route that was part of the ancient Silk Roads for centuries, but was frighteningly perilous for road transport and completely impassable until 2016 for rail transport.
Before this date, to reach the Ferghana Valley, trains had to pass through neighboring Tajikistan, which generated annual costs of US$25 million for Uzbekistan. The Chinese company China Railway Tunnel Group, however, succeeded, through blasting and excavation, in conquering the rock in three years to drill the longest tunnel in Central Asia with a length of 19.2 kilometers. This gigantic US$455 million engineering project — financed in part by a loan from the Export and Import Bank of China — helped solve a major connectivity problem for the country.
And, a sign of the importance that the project also has for China, the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, himself participated in the inauguration of the tunnel in the summer of 2016 alongside former President Karimov. “This unique tunnel will become an important link in the China-Central Asia-Europe international rail transport corridor,” the Chinese president declared at the time.
Subsequently, the Angren-Pap line, which now links Tashkent to Namangan, should continue its route to Kyrgyzstan and China. A Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project which is still on the table, but which is constantly postponed, in particular due to pressure from Moscow, which sees in it an erosion of its influence in Central Asia.
Climb the Kamchik Pass
Leaving the oppressive humidity of Tashkent, we cross the cotton and wheat fields which stretch on the outskirts of the capital to reach the Kamchik pass.
After having covered more than a hundred kilometers, the road becomes more winding. Behind every turn a new peak is now revealed. On the right lane, the trucks slowly climb the steeper climbs. And finally, we reach the top of the pass.
The spectacle is then breathtaking. Mountain sides flowing one after the other into this pass, now crisscrossed with a road, following its slightest undulations. A mountainous fresco that seems infinite.
Perched in the middle of the mountains, a little oasis offering drinks, nuts and quruts — small balls of dried cheese very popular in Uzbekistan — is installed on the side of the road. Behind the counter of this store, Khuashid Khudoyberganov, 34, says he worked alongside the Chinese for five years to build the famous tunnel. “I removed the earth after the blasting and helped lay the first layer of cement,” he says proudly. I like the quality of the work done by the Chinese. »
With our eyes completely charmed, we continue our journey towards Namangan, a city of a million inhabitants, known for its religious fervor and bordered by cotton and fruit fields for which it is famous.
A friendship celebrated
But before reaching this fertile valley, you have to cross kilometers of arid land, on which cement factories and construction companies have emerged in recent years, eloquent testimony to the real estate boom that Uzbekistan has experienced. A sector in which many Chinese investors are present.
At the entrance to the Tai Chang Special Steel metallurgical factory, which produces iron rods and cables, Uzbek and Chinese flags flutter in the wind. In the interior courtyard of the factory stands an impressive twenty-meter-long photograph of the Uzbek and Chinese presidents, symbolizing the friendship between the two peoples.
“We all live together like a big family,” says Rasuljon Jurayev, the director of the company, owned by three investors: two Chinese and an Uzbek. The factory is located in Chust, about an hour’s drive from Namangan, in a free trade zone offering a property tax holiday. “Without that, investors would not come here,” believes the director, also a former wrist shooting champion.
In this factory as in others, employees sleep directly on site. Company buses guarantee transportation for workers residing outside. And everyone can eat their meals in the canteen, which serves both Uzbek and Chinese dishes. “We have around 400 workers here, including 80 who are Chinese,” explains Mr. Jurayev. They are the masters. They train our local employees. »
Expansion plans of US$30 million are already being considered for this factory, which began operations in December 2021 thanks to an initial investment of US$50 million. “We will export to any country that is interested in our products. But we are mainly targeting Europe. »
Business opportunities
In the center of Namangan, the eternal traffic jams turn from the early hours of the morning into symphonies of horns, overwhelming the surrounding residents. With its agricultural machinery imported from China which is displayed in front of its store, the Chintech company also embodies this deepening of ties between China and Uzbekistan. “The Chinese offer modern technologies that are appreciated by local entrepreneurs, even if it is sometimes difficult to determine the quality of the new equipment that arrives on the market,” indicates Dilmurod Mansurov, the CEO of the company. .
To promote exchanges between the two countries, the company invited around fifteen Uzbek entrepreneurs on a business trip to an agricultural fair in Guangzhou, China. “New companies will be able to start doing business with China,” rejoices Musokhon Mavlonkhujaev, sales director. “The business opportunities are there,” he adds. A friendship between the two countries which does much more than break through mountains.
With Askar Djumanov
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat-International Journalism Fund.The duty.