Central Asia
Geography. Central Asia, composed of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, runs from the Caspian Sea on the west to Mongolia and China on the east, from the south of Ural and Siberia on the north to borders of Iran and Afghanistan on the south. Its 4 million square kilometers territory is the kingdom of steppes, deserts and mountains.
Climate. Climate. Contrasts of relief’s and huge extent from the north to the south determine a variety of climate of Central Asia - from temperate in the north and middle-high mountain areas to subtropical in valleys of the south. Remoteness from the World Ocean causes high dryness of air and differences of daily temperatures with obvious prevalence of sunny days and shortage of rainfall.
Resources. Central Asia possesses the richest and rather various natural resources potential, which are getting more and more important in the world economy.
General fund of tillable and irrigation acres put together15 million hectare, 2/3 from them are located in Amudarya basin, 1/3 - in Syrdarya basin. A variety of nature and climatic zones allows to cultivate in region the most of agricultural crops; abundance of pastures - to develop diversified extensive cattle breeding.
The region is rich in mineral, particularly energy resources (though the countries of the region they are allocated irregularly).
Possessing 1% of territory and 3% of the population of a planet, Central Asia has 3% of worldwide oil stock and 7% - of natural gas. By assured resources of coal Kazakhstan ranks 8 place in the world; by stocks of gas Turkmenistan ranks 11-th place, Uzbekistan - on 14-th place; by stocks of uranium Kazakhstan ranks the second, Uzbekistan - 9-th place in the world. Tajikistan disposes of the third largest Population. The population of Central Asia exceeds 57 million people. It is represented by many ethnic groups. The largest are Turkic (Uzbek, Kazakh, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Karakalpak, Tatar, Uigur) and Farsi (Tajik) groups; Russian, Korean and representatives of other nations reside in the countries of region. 9/10 of pious are Muslims – Sunnites, the majority of others adhere to Orthodox Christianity. As a whole the region is characterized by rather high natural population increase comparing with the global situation, the share of children under 15 and educational level are also high. In the structure of production fields of mineral extraction, growing of crops and its processing dominate in the countries of Central Asia. Kazakhstan possesses the largest mining industry (oil, coal, nonferrous metals) in the region, whereas Uzbekistan has the processing industry with rather high share of mechanical engineering, chemistry, and light industry. In other countries separate sectors gained certain development, in particular, in Turkmenistan - gas production and treatment of cotton, in Kyrgyzstan - power industry and gold mining, in Tajikistan - smelting of aluminum, light industry and power industry. The agriculture is allocated by grain (Kazakhstan), cotton and silk (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan), vegetables and fruit (all countries) manufacturing.Historical links. Long since Central Asian countries have been maintaining close cultural, social and trade-economic contacts. In spite of unique history of each state in the region they covered the similar ways of historical development apparent through spiritual and cultural commonality of Central Asian peoples. Since ancient times the Great Silk Route, connecting East and West, played the role of cultural, trade-economic transcontinental link. The newest history of Central Asian states is also characterized by the tendency to regional cooperation in various spheres and spiritual mutual enrichment of peoples.The history of Central Asian countries:
Economic development. Summary gross national income (GNI) of CA countries exceeded 43 billion USD in 2002; on purchasing-power parity - 162 billion USD. Leadership in region on economic potential and its sectoral variety belongs to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. On converting this indicator per capita, according to classification of the World Bank, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan relate to the countries with a level of economic development below world average, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan - to the countries with low level of economic development, Tajikistan - to the number of the poorest countries of the world.
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