Economic Prospects of Five Countries in Central Asia.

Byline: Tang Jun

With a total area of more than 4 million square kilometers, the five countries in Central AsiaKazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan- have key geo-strategic locations in the Eurasian continent. After gaining independence, the five countries made a great progress on their national development and peoples' living condition has hereby improved a lot. In recent years, the five countries are coming to the realization that it is difficult for them to further boost their economies without adopting proper bilateral and multilateral cooperation with other countries simultaneous to their own national development strategies. The economic prospects of the five countries can be analyzed through the following two aspects:

Favorable Factors on Economic Developmen

Kazakhstan

The non-energy industry in Kazakhstan will keep a rapid growth. By implementing a series of national strategies including "Bright Road" Initiative, "Digital Kazakhstan", and "Bright Residence", the growth speed of service industry, transportation industry and construction industry will reach 4.3%, 3.8% and 3.8 respectively. In addition, Kazakhstan is striving to promote structural reforms and improve the investment environment. The national economy also benefits a lot from external factors like Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan will accelerate the pace of its economic reform. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, after becoming the president in 2016, launched a series of economic reforms. It can be predicted that the nation will speed up the reforms and it will take some time before the reforms bring economic growth. In particular, the Decree of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev "On priority measures for liberalizing monetary policy" of September 2, 2017, contributed to fundamental reforms of the current system of currency regulation, liberalization of monetary policy, and creation of equal conditions for all business entities in foreign trade. After the Bishkek Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed to devise a concept for the introduction of "smart" agriculture and agroinnovations, to approve the SCO program "Green Belt" for the wide introduction of resource-saving and ecologically clean technologies.

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan will develop at a steady pace due to the diversification of the economy. The nation started the liberalization on various fields of...