The Evolution of the Kazakhstani Silk Road Section from a Transport into a Logistics Corridor and the Economic Sustainability of Regional Development in Central Asia

Sustainability

Giuseppe Loprencipe¹  Aislu Taisarinova²  Madina Junussova³ 

[1] Department of Civil, Constructional and Environmental Engineering, Sapienza University, 18 Via Eudossiana, Rome 00184, Italy;Faculty of Logistics and Management, Kazakh Academy of Transport and Communications, 97 Shevchenko Street, Almaty 050012, Kazakhstan;Institute of Public Policy and Administration, University of Central Asia, 138 Toktogul Street, Bishkek 720001, Kyrgyzstan;

关键词: The Silk Road in Central Asia;    Western Europe-Western China (WE–WC);    international trade;    transport corridor;    economic corridor;    sustainable regional development;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su12156291

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Central Asian countries attract investment in transport infrastructure to rebuild the Silk Road paths and enjoy economic benefits from the participation in international trade. The Kazakhstani government approached the Russian and Chinese governments intending to join the Western Europe–Western China (WE–WC) initiative to boost the country’s regional development. The paper aims to assess how the WE–WC transport corridor affected the economic potential of linking cities and regions starting from the quality of transport infrastructure and leading to their export potential. The study’s findings showed that the Kazakhstan section of the WE–WC corridor was at an early stage of transformation from a transport into an economic corridor. While the Russia-Uzbekistan section continues to serve mainly a transit function and operate at the level of transport infrastructure, the China-Kyrgyzstan section has started evolving from the level of multimode transport corridor to the level of logistics corridor. The economic sustainability of the WE–WC linking mining and agricultural regions of Kazakhstan still comes into question and depends on the government’s further region-specific policy actions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown