MenuIssues Paper: October 2018 | Dr. Ariel Cohen and James Grant |Read Report Here.
“Development debates often focus on natural curses and blessings. For some countries, being landlocked is a curse resulting in difficult and costly access to/from markets. However, for the countries comprising Central Asia, most notably Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, in ancient times and today, being landlocked has been a blessing. The Silk Road puts Central Asia in the crossroads of the East-West and North-South trade routes.
Infrastructure is the key to exploiting this location and transforming it into economic development and prosperity for the people of the region. Much of the attention focuses on the hard infrastructure: pipelines, railways, highways, and communications networks. Going back to ancient times, such infrastructure allowed markets to function and grow by connecting supply and demand and maximizing the value of the region’s natural resources.”
[excerpt from Foreword by Daniel A. Witt]