The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway, a major project under the Belt and Road Initiative that began construction this year, is expected to facilitate logistics between China and Central Asia, said a logistic provider from Uzbekistan.
Alex Jasur Mavlyanov, CEO of Shanghai CHK International Logistics, has spent the past decade helping to ship heavy equipment from China to Central Asia, with his business growing month by month.
"A lot of infrastructure is being built in central Asia, including Uzbekistan, so, we're trying to take on project logistics more," he said.
In 2018, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway was opened, which allowed Mavlyanov's company to transport in a more convenient way. But trucks also face challenges of unpredictability and delays.
"When the infrastructure, the roads are smooth and everything, it's fine. But unfortunately, when you use land transportation, it's seasonal. So for example, during winter time, there's heavy snow in central Asia, in the desert and there's a lot of unpredictability," he said.
With China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan Railway now under construction, Mavlyanov has high hopes for faster, more reliable shipping in the future.
"As a railway, it provides one thing definitely — the stability. It doesn't really matter, there's snow or rain. It doesn't stop, it just goes from A to B without any problems," he said.
The construction of the railway will not only boost trade between China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. It will also facilitate cargo transport to the other three Central Asian countries.
In 2024, China's trade with Central Asian nations reached some 94.8 billion US dollars, with large amounts of cargo shipped every day between the two sides.
Though the railway is expected to be completed in six years, Magliano's long-term plan of staying in China won't make the waiting time that difficult.
"I'm seeing my future here for the next at least 10, 15, 20 years and maybe we will make the company into Forbes, make it public very soon. That's the plan," he said.
China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway expected to facilitate regional logistics
China's 16th Arctic Ocean expedition achieved the country's first video call spanning the North and South Poles on September 25, coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival, using a domestically developed satellite system with a delay of no more than one second.
The expedition deployed four vessels -- Xuelong, Xuelong 2, Jidi, and Tansuo 3 -- to study extreme environmental changes in the Arctic amid accelerating global warming. On September 29, China's research icebreakers Xuelong and Xuelong 2 returned to Shanghai after completing their missions, while Jidi and Tansuo 3 continue their expedition tasks and are expected to return in mid-October following a three-month journey.
The expedition team held a satellite video conversation with China's Antarctic Qinling Station, extending festive greetings to their polar scientific research counterparts and testing a large-scale constellation designed to provide global broadband internet and support integrated space-Earth 6G networks.
"This is the first time that China has used a domestically developed communications satellite system to make a video call across the largest latitude span," said Liu Feng, a senior engineer at the National Marine Data and Information Service.
The around-13,000-satellite GW constellation, led by China Satellite Network Group (SatNet), is China's first mega low Earth orbit satellite internet project. During the polar test, the maximum uplink and downlink speed reached around 30 megabits per second, equivalent to taking about 10 minutes to download a 1GB file. The equipment can also be used for emergency rescue and maritime communications.
"During the test period, it also supported real-time communications among Xuelong, Jidi, Tansuo 3, the National Marine Data and Information Service and the Polar Research Center. After Jidi and Tansuo 3 entered ice zone operation areas, their communication could not be guaranteed. So file transfers and navigation logs had to be transmitted through the SatNet equipment," said Zhang Bin, an engineer at the National Marine Data and Information Service. The successful test of the domestically produced satellite communication equipment marks China's independent control over polar region communications. The equipment ensures that data remains within the country, effectively safeguarding data security.
China holds first video call between North, South Poles via homegrown satellite system
