An international conference entitled "Central Asia is a transcontinental transport bridge: potential and prospects for development" has been held in Tashkent. Uzbek Television Second Channel Yoshlar on 20 November reported about the issues discussed and results achieved at the conference.

According to statistics, at present, there are 320,000-km-long motorways, 20,000-km-long railway network, over 100 airports, in particular 20 international airports, in the Central Asian counties. Four billion tonnes of goods are transported via the region’s counties every year. It was stressed at the conference that this figure could be increased by several times. For this purpose, 200-250-km-long new roads are built or reconstructed every year in Uzbekistan alone.

A Chinese participant in the conference, interviewed, notes the importance of transport communications in developing trade and economic relations with the Central Asian countries.

As you know, Uzbekistan does not have direct access to sea ports, and this restricts the opportunities for foreign economic activities. Therefore certain directions of accessing the world market have been worked out to resolve this issue positively. Those who made speeches at the conference discussed in detail making a better use of the existing opportunities in this area.

The participants in the conference discussed attracting foreign investments and implementing large projects in the region’s transport communications sector.