The booster station of the Shelek Wind Farm in the Almaty Region, Kazakhstan Photo: Courtesy of PowerChina

About 50 kilometers east of Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, vast green meadows are spanned by wind turbines, their blades cutting elegant arcs through the air. This is the Akmola wind power cluster, a project built and invested in by a Chinese company.

As the latest outcome of China-Kazakhstan green energy cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the project is managed by a local energy investment company under China's State Power Investment Corporation. It supplies 843 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually, saving 278,300 tons of coal and cutting carbon emissions by 686,600 tons, contributing to the country's energy transition and local development.

China-Central Asia energy cooperation now spans beyond energy security to support broader sustainable development and a low-carbon future. Emerging areas of collaboration now include energy conservation, environmental protection, green agriculture, and clean and renewable energy.

China, a global leader in hydropower, wind, and solar technologies - with over 50 percent of the world's installed renewable energy capacity - has seen its enterprises actively invest in Central Asia's clean energy sector, the People's Daily reported.

In Kazakhstan alone, Chinese-backed projects like the Almaty solar power plant and the Zhanatas wind farm have brought the country's clean energy capacity to over 1,000 megawatts, the report said.

Green deals

On the sidelines of the just-concluded China-Central Asia Summit held in Astana, a series of cooperation agreements were signed, led by clean energy cooperation, underscoring the strong potential for further growth in this vital sector to meet the development of regional countries.

During the summit, China Energy Construction Overseas Investment Co signed a power purchase deal for a 300MWac solar-plus-storage project in Kazakhstan's Turkistan Region, a shareholder agreement for a 500MW wind-plus-storage project in Karaganda Region, and a memorandum of understanding on hydrogen energy research and innovation in Central Asia.

The new deals build on the company's recent achievements in green energy. According to public information, during the inaugural China-Central Asia Summit in May 2023, the company broke ground on a 1GW solar project in Uzbekistan, marking the start of its rapid investment expansion across Central Asia.

Also, during the summit, China National Chemical Engineering International Co and East China Engineering Science and Technology Co signed a cooperation agreement with the QazaqGaz Scientific and Technical Center for Kazakhstan's first coal-to-gas project, according to the Security Times. The signing, witnessed by Kazakh Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov, marked a milestone in bilateral clean energy cooperation.

During the 2025 Central Asia-China Energy Forum, which was held under the framework of the second China-Central Asia Summit, in Astana, Ding Yanzhang, chairman of Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina), signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Kazakhstan's Ministry of Energy, according to the company.

In a written interview with the Global Times, PowerChina noted that the summit is a milestone for deepening cooperation between China and Central Asia, aiming to expand collaboration beyond traditional energy and infrastructure into emerging sectors such as the digital economy, green development, and advanced technology, creating new business and technological opportunities.

PowerChina sees strong prospects for future cooperation with regional countries, noting that with "the strategic location, rich resources, and strong complementarity with China, Central Asia holds great potential." The region's push for economic diversification and industrialization aligns well with China's strength in capital, technology, and experience, the company said.

With the summit mechanism steadily improving and Belt and Road cooperation advancing, China and Central Asian countries are expected to deepen high-quality cooperation based on mutual benefit, jointly address their challenges, and work together to build a more prosperous, stable, and interconnected region, PowerChina said.

Booming trade

While green cooperation represents a rapidly growing area highlighting the expanding potential of ties between China and Central Asian countries, trade remains a resilient pillar that reflects ever closer connectivity within the region and beyond.

The just concluded summit announced the signing of 12 cooperation agreements regarding the Belt and Road cooperation, facilitation of personnel exchanges, green mining, trade, connectivity, industry and customs, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Jin Xiaomin, CEO of the Zhejiang Kingston Supply Chain Group Co, a leading cross-border supply chain service provider based in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province, sees huge opportunities from the outcomes of the summit.

The Yiwu entrepreneur first visited Kazakhstan in 2014 as part of a high-level delegation - an experience that prompted him to begin exploring cooperation with countries in the region. Now, riding the new momentum generated by the just-concluded summit, he is looking to further expand his company's presence and partnerships in Central Asia.

His company focuses on logistics and trade, with Yiwu as its base of operations. "We ship around 2,000 containers to Central Asia every year, and that number continues to grow, reflecting the tremendous potential of this market," Jin said.

Meanwhile, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) Railway project, a landmark BRI project, launched last year, is set to significantly boost Central Asia's logistics potential. The new line will enhance the capacity of the Trans-Caspian corridor and serve as a key transportation artery along the China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor.

The full-scale launch of the CKU railway is expected to greatly shorten freight transport length from China to Europe, cutting transport time by 7 to 10 days, Sun Shaoquan, head of the market development department at China Railway Special Cargo Logistics Co, told the Global Times on Thursday, noting that this not only reduces costs but also enables seamless cross-border transport through a "bill of lading" multimodal system.

Sun also noted that the summit carries significant strategic importance for advancing regional trade cooperation. He said that the summit has established a higher-level platform for policy coordination between China and Central Asian countries, promoting deeper alignment between the BRI and the development strategies of countries in the region.