The Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan took part in the official opening ceremony of China — Eurasia: Commodity and Trade EXPO 2023. Press service of the Cabinet reported.
Akylbek Japarov made a speech at the Tien Shan Forum as part of the EXPO. He noted that since its foundation in 2010, China — Eurasia EXPO has firmly established itself as one of the country’s main exhibition events aimed at expanding trade and economic cooperation between the states of Eurasia. Like many years ago, Xinjiang continues to play an important role in the development of the economic belt of the Great Silk Road as the western gate of the PRC to Central Asia and with access to the Eurasian continent.
The head of the Cabinet once again reminded that the world economic «power center» is visibly shifting in the southeast direction, towards Asia.
Over the past 20 years, the GDP of the Central Asian countries has increased 7.5 times, and the average growth rate was 6.2 percent. This is higher than in developing countries, and compared to the world economy as a whole, growth is more than twice as high.
«I believe that the role of Central Asia in the global market will only increase. Trade routes and supply chains of goods are moving to our region. Therefore, implementation of China — Kyrgyzstan — Uzbekistan railway construction project is of great importance not only for three countries, but also for the countries of the entire region,» Akylbek Japarov said.
He also dwelled on the trends in global trade and outlined three main ones. The first is the dynamic development of e-commerce. The global e-commerce market has grown fivefold over the past 10 years to over $6 trillion. The volume of the e-commerce market in Central Asia last year reached $8 billion. A striking example is the world-famous Alibaba Group with a multi-billion dollar turnover and serving more than 1 billion consumers.
«A favorable environment for the development of e-commerce is also being created in Kyrgyzstan. The law on Electronic Commerce was adopted and a program was approved to support and develop electronic commerce for 2023-2026 with an action plan for its implementation,» Akylbek Japarov said.
As the second trend he named the development of digitalization in logistics. Logistics companies are increasingly using artificial intelligence-based solutions in their work that help calculate and build optimal routes. The head of the Cabinet called on the parties to actively work on simplifying the logistics of moving goods between countries and customs clearance procedures at external borders.
The third trend he named was the incredible speed of technology development in the banking and payment sectors (fintech solutions). Akylbek Japarov stressed that Kyrgyzstan has a great investment potential.
The republic can and is ready to act as a «window» for foreign investors to enter the markets of the EAEU countries, China, and the European Union.
«I would like to separately note that Kyrgyzstan has GSP+ status with the European Union, thanks to which exporters will be able to supply more than 6,000 commodity items to the EU countries at zero tariff rates. To date, the Kyrgyz Republic is one of nine countries in the world that have the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of this status. In addition, Kyrgyzstan is included in the UK’s new Developing Countries Trading Scheme, which allows about 8,000 commodity items of Kyrgyzstan to enter the market at preferential rates,» the official said.
In addition, the head of the Cabinet noted that Kyrgyzstan has embarked on the development of the production of organic agricultural products.
«We are ready to contribute to meeting the needs of the Chinese market with agricultural products and food products. We are interested in supplying agro-industrial complex products that are safe for health and life to China,» he said.
Akylbek Japarov also drew attention to the importance of implementation of hydropower projects. He invited companies from China to consider their participation in the construction of hydroelectric, solar and wind power plants.
«Implementation of projects in the energy sector, with the prospect of large-scale exports of generated clean, green electricity to China, primarily to XUAR, will bring benefits to both countries,» Akylbek Japarov concluded.
