From May 27 to 29, the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Forum on Silk Road Cooperation was held in Lanzhou. Professor Yang Shu, director of the Institute for Central Asian Studies in Lanzhou University, was invited to attend the forum and made a keynote address entitled “The Strategic Conception for the Economic Development Axis in Central Asia”.
Professor Yang Shu pointed out in his address that a straight line from the former capital of Kazakhstan—Almaty, which is also its primate city, to Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat, passes through Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek and Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent, and Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe is not far from the south of the line. If we extend the line toward northeast, it will reach some distance north of Urumqi (over 100 km).
This straight line in space connects the six most important economic centers in Central Asia, and this line also happens to be the most active areas in economic development of Central Asia. As the prototype of "Silk Road Economic Belt” in Central Asia, the role this economic development axis plays in the future construction of “Silk Road Economic Belt” will be increasingly obvious .
The forum was hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China and co-organized by the government of Gansu province. Representatives from 31 member states of ACD attended the forum.
