U.S. Pitches to Central Asian Businesses for NDN; Some Tajik Freight Begins to Move from Uzbekistan
U.S. military planners have tried to sell the politically-sensitive issue of assisting the NATO war effort in Afghanistan via the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) as an economic windfall for Central Asian businesses -- many of which are closely bound to autocratic Central Asian governments.
More than 30 economic and business leaders joined Central Asian governments at a working group meeting of the U.S.-Central Asia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent and regional media reported May 5. Government officials gave presentations on various business opportunities in their country ranging from mining projects in Afghanistan to expansion of Caspian Sea port facilities in Turkmenistan and the advantages of the Free Industrial Economic Zone in Navoi, Uzbekistan. Michael Feldman, director for South and Central Asia for the U.S. Trade Representative office, highlighted the importance of public-private partnerships particularly in the area of transportation, to facilitate regional trade. The upgrading of transport routes of course will enhance the deliveries to U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan along with local trade.
Representatives from Afghanistan, which has observer status in the TIFA, said major development projects were "making significant progress," such as the Uzbek-backed railroad to Mazar-i-Sharif and the delivery of electricity to Kabul, regnum.ru reported. The Afghans said the U.S. had announced that a number of seminars would be held on opportunities for Central Asian companies to deliver products to Afghanistan.
TIFA is a forum designed to enhance trade and investment relations between the U.S. and the five Central Asian nations. At a meeting in Washington in October 2009 between Central Asian and U.S. officials, the Americans pledged to help expand Central Asian business.
The problem in taking advantage of this windfall is how fast regional bureaucrats can ramp up their infrastructure. Central Asians are rising to the challenge of increased economic opportunity from the war in Afghanistan by increasing their capacity. Uzbekistan's National Aviation Company tripled its air freight to 11,000 tons, including both paid baggage and mail, in the first quarter of 2010, regnum.ru reported May 18. The Uzbek airline made 5,663 flights so far in 2010, carrying 446,000 passengers, 65,000 more than in 2009 in the same period.
Uzbekistan has streamlined its air service by installing a system for electronic freight documents in cooperation with 21 other regional and international airlines that have already moved exclusively to electronic ticketing.
It is not clear how much of the freight is related to the NDN. Supplies are flown to the southwestern Uzbek city of Navoi, and then sent by rail or truck to Afghanistan. Navoi's role in the NDN would likely explain the tripling of flights.
Regional observers have raised concerns about the impact on the NDN of logjams on the rail lines of Uzbekistan regarding freight bound for Tajikistan. Uzbekistan has been holding up cargo over a dispute with Tajikistan on the construction of its Roghun power station, a project Uzbekistan fears will deplete downstream river flow for its irrigation-intensive cotton industry. Some of the freight cars have construction materials intended for Roghun. Things have gotten so bad that Iran even offered to help offered to negotiate the dispute between Uzbekistan and Tajkistan at their request.
On May 7, Uzbekistan finally let 35 freight cars with flour through to Tajikistan regnum.ru reported, citing Tajik rail officials. Usmon Kalandarov, deputy head of the Tajik Railroad, said the cars were the first to pass through in nearly three months. Kalandarov said there were 1,086 freight cars stuck in Uzbekistan currently, including 666 cars with fuel , 228 with grain and flour, 78 with clay, 44 with cement, 71 with bitumen, and 19 with unspecified "equipment."
The rail official said that only 734 cars had passed through from the beginning of the year to Khatlon region until March 16, when not a single car was permitted to pass, and only 27 cars had left for Dushanbe this year. Uzbek authorities have cited a number of excuses, such as rain that has apparently washed out roads between the Amuzang and Termez stations and even a lack of diesels and congestion at the stations.
Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry continues to explain the hold-up of trains to Tajikistan as due to the overload of cargo headed to Afghanistan, ferghana.ru reported May 18 , citing the Ministry's statement.
Dushanbe continues to complain that Tashkent has deliberately blocked as many as 2,000 freight cars this year with "strategically important" loads, including jet fuel, lubricants, and flour. Given that Tashkent
appears to have admitted that it is willing to lift the rail blockade if Dushanbe halts construction on Roghun, it's not clear how much the story of the logjam at the Afghan border holds up.
Even so, there is no question that the overload of freight in Uzbekistan is caused by obligations Tashkent has made to NATO to assist the NDN in delivery of non-lethal freight to NATO forces in Afghanistan, the Foreign Ministry statement admits. While there are no problems at some border crossings with Tajikistan, the Foreign Ministry says there is considerable congestion on the Kurgan-Tyubin route.
The Foreign Ministry also says that the state railroad company has not had the funds to upgrade the tracks across a sensitive zone prone to mudslides.
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