Eurasian Integration Yearbook 2012

The Economics of the Post-Sovietand Eurasian IntegrationTotal amount of merchandisetrade ($ billion)7,500Asia3,0001,000500NorthAmericaCommonwealth ofIndependent StatesPart of merchandise trade realised...... within the region... with the other regionsLatin & CentralAmericaEuropeAfricaMiddleEastTransregional merchandise tradeflows ($ billion)8004501005025Less than 25Figure 6.1.Global trade flows(2008, $ billion)Source: Gill andRaiser (2011)land-locked position, it is now more appropriate to think of them as facinggreat opportunities for being “land-linked” to the world’s great and dynamiceconomies 4 . Not only will they benefit from access to their neighbours’ goods,energy, capital and labour markets, but also from the potential transit tradewhich will develop across Central Asian territory in linking Europe and Asiafrom East to West and North to South.One way to look at this potential process is to compare Central Asia withthe successful, small, land-locked countries of Europe: Austria, Liechtenstein,Luxembourg and Switzerland, and now Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.Rather than suffering from their land-locked location, these countries have longtaken great advantage of the historic economic integration process of Europeand been able to create great prosperity for their citizens 5 .Central Asia’s regional economic integrationand cooperation: Benefits and obstaclesFor Central Asian countries to benefit from access to their big neighbouringeconomies they have to overcome the legacy of disintegration that haunted all of4The idea of Central Asia benefiting from a “land-linked” status can be found in CAREC (2012)5Geographic distances to neighbouring economic centres are of course much greater for the Central Asian countries than forthe land-locked countries of Western and Central Europe. But with the advances in transport and communications technology,economic distances have shrunk dramatically over the last 150 years, and especially over the last 50 years.98 EDB Eurasian Integration Yearbook 2012