China, C. Asia eye common growth

Fu Yaguang has been running a company dealing with the artificial adaptation and breeding of saiga antelope in Astana, Kazakhstan, for three years. Every day, he monitors the antelopes on the farm, particularly focusing on the health and life patterns of the calves.

The 43-year-old Chinese businessman is now planning to purchase fodder for the antelopes to live through the cold days of winter.

Once widespread across the vast Eurasian steppe, including northwestern China, the saiga antelope was on the brink of extinction until it made a remarkable recovery in Kazakhstan in recent years.

Fu said he was surprisingly pleased when he heard about Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's decision to gift 1,500 saigas to China to help restore the species in the country.

"The saiga antelope is to Kazakhstan what the giant panda is to China. I hope we can take this opportunity to jointly support the revitalization of the saiga antelope population in China, allowing this Central Asian wonder to roam the steppes in our country once again," Fu said.

"I think Kazakhstan's initiative has further promoted China-Kazakhstan friendship and greatly boosted confidence of people like me who care about wild animals. It is a result of the diversification of China-Central Asia cooperation," he said.

Kazakhstan's initiative, deemed as a new chapter in regional environmental cooperation and strategic partnership, is just one example of China-Central Asia cooperation that is "rooted in more than 2,000 years of friendly exchanges, cemented by solidarity and mutual trust cultivated through more than three decades of diplomatic ties, and taken forward via openness and win-win cooperation in the new era".

When President Xi Jinping and leaders of the five Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — gathered in Astana for the second China-Central Asia summit last week, they agreed that maintaining productive and all-around cooperation between China and the five Central Asian countries serves the fundamental interests of the people of the six countries.

The summit produced a raft of consensuses across areas ranging from security and trade to regional development, including the signing of a treaty on eternal good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation.

In response to Central Asian countries' urgent need for revitalization and enhanced capacity for independent development, Xi announced the launch of three cooperation centers to prevent desertification, promote education exchanges and advance poverty eradication, as well as a cooperation platform on smooth trade under the China-Central Asia cooperation framework.

"These mechanisms will undoubtedly contribute to expanding practical engagement among our countries. Uzbekistan is committed to actively participating in organizing and developing their activities," said Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

Citing the Chinese saying that "he who goes forward with friends will achieve more", Mirziyoyev said that based on China's advanced experience, dozens of major projects have been implemented in Uzbekistan — aimed at boosting industrial capacity, developing social infrastructure and creating jobs in various regions of the country.

Tokayev, in his remarks at the summit, spoke highly of China's tremendous achievements in technological innovation and artificial intelligence development, saying that the path to a common high-tech future requires adequate staffing and, therefore, strengthening of human capital.

"We are looking forward to launching joint research labs and engineering academies, drawing on the experience of China's largest technology companies," he said.

It was agreed at the summit that 2025 and 2026 are designated as the Years of High-Quality Development of China-Central Asia Cooperation, during which cooperation will be focused on smooth trade, industrial investment, connectivity, green minerals, agricultural modernization and personnel exchanges.

New journey

Observers said that as China is striving to develop itself into a strong country and promote national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization, the five Central Asian countries, also developing countries, are aspiring to join hands with China to achieve their respective modernization.

Over the past two years, China-Central Asia cooperation has witnessed China and the Central Asian countries working together toward modernization, and this will continue on the new journey initiated by the second China-Central Asia Summit, they said.

In Kazakhstan, the arrival of the 100,000th container from China earlier this month at Aktau port marked the official launch of the pilot phase of the largest container hub of the Caspian Sea, a landmark project in Belt and Road cooperation between China and Kazakhstan.

In Kyrgyzstan, China's vocational Luban Workshop program has helped local teachers improve their teaching experience and also assisted students in rapidly enhancing their technical skills.

In Tajikistan, the China-Tajikistan Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine offered a new option for local patients and contributed to exchanges in traditional medicine between the two countries.

In Turkmenistan, the natural gas field located in the vast Karakum Desert has facilitated the development of surrounding infrastructure and created a large number of jobs, while boosting energy infrastructure interconnection between China and Central Asian countries.

In Uzbekistan, the country is implementing China's poverty alleviation experience in pilot programs in various regions of the country, in terms of infrastructure, energy, communications, tourism and other areas.

Chu Dongmei, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies, said that under the guidance of the heads of state, China-Central Asia cooperation is steadily advancing in various fields, with mutually beneficial trade and economic collaboration having significantly improved people's livelihoods in Central Asia.

During the summit, the six leaders also signed an action plan for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between China and Central Asian countries, all of which have already signed bilateral cooperation documents with China under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

"This is the first time that China has signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with all the countries in a single neighboring region as a whole. It will help countries to achieve modernization following paths suited to their national conditions," Chu said.

Venera Akmatova, a professor at Kyrgyz National University, said China and the five Central Asian countries are highly interested in mutually beneficial cooperation, with their goals and visions aligning with common interests, and therefore China-Central Asia cooperation will continue to deepen.

"Central Asia is a vast region with abundant natural resources and is one of the world's strategic areas," she told CRI Online. "However, the increasing global economic uncertainty has led to significant price hikes in food, building materials and other goods in these countries, thus triggering a series of social issues."

According to Akmatova, if the Central Asian countries can fully learn from China's experience for rapid development, and strengthen cooperation in areas where China is making strong advancements, such as cutting-edge technology and the digital economy, this will greatly benefit the Central Asian region and promote the diversification of economic structures in countries such as Kyrgyzstan.