![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
WORLD MARKETS * China’s Road into Kyrgyzstan
The Kyrgyz truck drivers and market traders who have benefited from trade routes to their eastern neighbour. Are less enthusiastic about the growing Chinese role in the local economyIrkeshtam,Kyrgyzstan -Institute for War and Peace Reporting (London,England,UK), by Ulugbek Babakulov -19 Oct 2007: -- As China's commercial presence extends into Central Asia, the caravan routes which once formed the Silk Road are again bustling with traffic. Only the methods for delivering goods have changed on the dilapidated 300-kilometre road leading from Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan to the Irkeshtam border crossing, and on into western China. Caravans of camels carrying silk, spices and precious stones have been replaced by convoys of trucks loaded up with Chinese fridges, televisions and clothes – all destined for south Kyrgyzstan’s bustling markets. Some of the goods will find their way into nearby Uzbekistan, where the authorities have clamped down on Chinese exports to try to protect local industry. Here the demand for cheap consumer goods has created a thriving smuggling trade to circumvent official restrictions... With the imports have come economic and social change, as China – sealed off from Central Asia in the Soviet period – has become a regional player, and its merchants a common sight at Kyrgyz markets... I traced the journey made by people and goods all the way from Irkeshtam, past snow-capped mountains and desolate steppes, to the giant wholesale market at Karasuu, where I also took a look at trade across the closely-guarded Kyrgyz-Uzbek border... (Pictures by Ulugbek Babakulov -Above: Trucks carrying Chinese goods head for Osh - Below: The Kyrgyz-Uzbek border at Karasuu.)
Labels: markets
posted by Unknown @ 12:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home