More than 40 projects $30-billion worth may be realized by EEU and China in the field of transport

Almaty. December 6. Silkroadnews – Together with other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) Russia has offered more than 40 joint projects in the field of transport to become a subject of co-funding with China, “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” writes.

“The interest (by the EEU states to the possibilities of a multilateral format – Silkroadnews) turned to be quite high. Now we have gathered a little over 40 proposals. These are the construction of new roads and modernization of the existing ones, creation of transport and logistics centers, development of key transport hubs, and so on”, Minister in charge of Energy and Infrastructure of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Adamkul Zhunusov said.

As an example he cited South railway Iran-Armenia.
“After implementation of the project this way will go through Iran to Kazakhstan, China and beyond. It is not only a direct rail way bringing together Iran and other Gulf states that becomes real, the project also provides for these states’ overland transport possibilities in cooperation with other countries of the Silk Road”, A. Zhunusov said.

He also adds, as a part of such work interconnection with the Silk Road Kyrgyzstan proposes to consider building three transport and logistics centers, as well as several projects for the railway construction.

“The most important among them is the railway China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan. The project will allow Kyrgyzstan to create a single internal rail network and connect the EEU states with China. This all will form a new southern corridor of Eurasia continental bridge. And indeed, the implementation of such projects will have a positive impact on the growth of the country’s competitiveness in the international through transportation market”, the minister has noted.

He also said that the final version of the project proposals is expected to be formed at the meeting of the heads of transport departments and added that “the total cost of all projects is planned to amount to more than $30 billion”.

“All this is very relative, as they are (the projects – Silkroadnews) under various degrees of development and implementation. The cost of complex infrastructure projects is formed at the stage of feasibility study, and still later it can undergo changes, sometimes quite significant, as project implementation may take few years after the original project development”, A. Zhunusov has also noted.