China has launched a new wave of investment into projects in Central Asia in the past two years and nowhere is this more clearly seen than in Uzbekistan.

Twenty years ago, China was interested in large projects in the region such as the pipeline to bring oil from western Kazakhstan to China, or pipelines that bring natural gas from Turkmenistan to China.

Road and railway projects were also high on the Chinese list of investments in Central Asia, always with the goal of bringing Central Asian resources to China.

Now almost all the grand export projects China needed in the region to its west are built, but numerous opportunities remain for Chinese companies in domestic projects in Central Asian countries.

Renewable energy

Uzbekistan has been suffering from energy shortages, particularly acute during the winter, for several years now.

The Uzbek government wants renewable energy sources to play a larger role in providing electricity for the country. Saudi company ACWA and United Arab Emirates company Masdar have been involved in projects in Uzbekistan for several years.

In February 2023, Uzbek Energy Minister Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov visited China to discuss cooperation.

During Mirzamakhmudov’s trip, Uzbekistan’s Energy Ministry signed a deal with China Energy to build solar power stations in Uzbekistan’s Kashkadarya, Bukhara, and Samarkand provinces. The plants would generate a combined 2,000 megawatts (MW) and the Chinese company pledged to invest $2bn into the project.

Days later, Uzbekistan’s Energy Ministry signed a deal with Chinese companies Huaneng Renewables Corporation and China Poly Group subsidiary Poly Technologies to build solar power plants in Uzbekistan’s Tashkent and Jizzakh provinces.

During a visit paid by a Chinese delegation in late March 2023, representatives of China’s Huadian Xinjiang Power and Uzbek officials signed an agreement on the construction of a solar power plants in Uzbekistan’s Navoi and Ferghana provinces.

In June the same year, China Energy and Saudi company ACWA received the contract to build a solar power plant with a capacity of 400 MW in the Yuqorich district of Tashkent Province.

Uzbekistan’s Energy Ministry then signed an agreement with PowerChina at the end of July to build a 400-MW solar power plant in Andijan Province.

The foray of Chinese companies into Uzbekistan’s renewable energy market continued in 2024.

In April, it was announced that China Poly Group and China Electric would build a solar power station with a 500-MW capacity in the Farish district of Uzbekistan’s Jizzakh Province, and in May China Datang Overseas Investment won the tender to build a 263-MW solar power plant in Tashkent Province.

In late November, Chinese company Sinoma EC International signed a deal to build a 300-MW solar power station and a 75-MW energy storage system in the Karmana district of Navoi Province.

Chinese companies now have a major energy presence in solar, biomass and wind in Uzbekistan (Credit: EBRD).

Chinese companies have also signed deals to build wind farms in Uzbekistan.

During Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s visit to China in January 2024, Uzbek officials announced SANY Renewable Energy Co will build a wind farm in Uzbekistan’s western Karakalpakstan Republic.

In May, Mirziyoyev approved a deal with China’s Universal Energy to construct two wind farms – one in Jizzakh Province, the other in Samarkand Province – each with a 250-MW capacity.

In July, Saudi Arabia’s ACWA sold 35% of its shares in two wind farm projects in Bukhara Province to China Southern Power Grid.

In August, Uzbek officials in the Ferghana Province announced China’s Longyuan Power Group was planning on investing in wind and solar power facilities in the province.

Companies from China are also involved in most of the biomass energy plants under construction in Uzbekistan.

The Uzbek ministry signed a deal  for a biomass plant with Chengdu Environment Investment Group in August 2024.

In November, the Ministry of Ecology and Environmental Protection announced the signing of an agreement with China CAMC Engineering for two biomass plants, one in Tashkent, the other in Andijan.

At the same time, there was a separate agreement struck with Shanghai SUS Environment for one biomass plant in Samarkand and another in Kashkadarya Province, and an agreement with China Everbright Group for biomass plants in Namangan and Ferghana provinces.

Mining uranium, copper and silver

China is still looking at raw materials and this is evident in the mining contracts signed with Uzbekistan since 2024.

In March 2024, China Nuclear Uran said it was looking to develop two black shale uranium sites in Navoi Province.

China is also building up a presence in Uzbekistan's metallurgy industry (Credit: agmk.uz).

In November, President Mirziyoyev met with officials in Surhandarya Province to discuss an offer from unspecified Chinese investors to put up some $2.7bn to develop copper and silver deposits in the province’s Bobotog district.

The same month, Uzbek media reported Chinese company Mining Energy Group would be developing a copper mine in Chust district of Namangan Province.

Factories and construction

Several new plants and factories are being constructed, or soon will be, with help from Chinese companies and Chinese investment.

In May 2024, Huigong Hebei Machinery Group Co. started building a plant in Tashkent Province to make spare parts for dump trucks.

That same month, Shiyan Zhenke Industrial Technology came to an agreement with officials in Ferghana Province to manufacture “specialised equipment” for production of vehicles.

Uzbek media reported in August that Shangdong Aipurui Steel Plate Co had started construction of a metallurgical plant in Ferghana Province and that Chinese company Da Fu had started operations at a metal plant in Tashkent Province the previous month.

In September, Ferghana Province Governor Khayrullo Bozorov told the media that Xinjiang Bai Yi Da Construction Investment would build a factory to produce copper wire.

In November 2024, it was announced that China Baoli Technologies Holdings Limited had started construction of a non-ferrous metal plant in Andijan Province.

Also in November, the Tashkent city administration signed agreements worth some $1bn with China State Construction Engineering Corporation for the reconstruction of roads in the Uzbek capital, the construction of bridges and a residential complex in Tashkent.

And days later, Mirziyoyev visited the 764-hectare site  on the outskirts of Tashkent where a special industrial zone is being built and will be managed by China’s CAMC Engineering.

At the start of December, the head of the Communist Party Committee from China’s Sichuan Province, Wang Xiaohui, visited Uzbekistan to discuss the Navoi-Sichuan industrial park that will be built in the city of Navoi.

Water conservation

Mirziyoyev has been speaking since 2023 about water management and the need to repair and line-against-leakage Uzbekistan’s ageing canals and irrigation networks.

China’s CITIC Construction Co received a contract in December 2024 to reconstruct the irrigation infrastructure in the Bukhara, Namangan and Surhandarya provinces, and partner with CAMC Engineering to do the same work in Kashkadarya Province.

The cost of the project is some $220mn. China’s Eximbank will provide credits for the work.

With all this Chinese construction activity in Uzbekistan, it is no surprise that China’s Eximbank opened a regional office for Central Asia and the South Caucasus in Tashkent in November last year..

Better off but deeper in debt

Uzbekistan stands to benefit significantly from this great array of Chinese-built, Chinese-funded projects scattered across 10 of Uzbekistan’s 12 provinces and its Karakalpakstan Republic.

The renewable energy facilities will ease concerns about electricity and the jobs these projects create will employ thousands of Uzbekistan’s citizens.

However, as of July 2023, Uzbekistan owed China some $3.8bn.

China won’t be paying the full cost of all the projects Uzbekistan has agreed to in the past two years, but those projects amount to well over $10bn and China will be providing the bulk of those funds.

This will undoubtedly boost China’s influence in Uzbekistan. And the wealth of activity should also give Beijing an advantage as Tashkent takes bids from investors seeking to help develop Uzbekistan’s critical mineral deposits.