Transportation in Central Asia

Abstract Central Asia is a land-locked region, which has no access to the world’s high seas, but in terms of natural resources, especially petroleum, natural gas and rare metals is very rich and has an important status in the world. For exporting these materials to world markets, the region is faced with some problems including banking and insurance systems, customs duties and laws, electronic commerce, and other legal and formal problems. Thus, it should be mentioned that Central Asia is under consideration of those countries which need to have access to this region. On the other side, exporting available resources from Central Asia to markets will bring revenues and incomes and in return, they pay it for importing goods and services they need. Two important transportation infrastructures, which are rival, has been established including “Transit Corridor of Europe, the Caucasus and Asia” (TRACECA) in west-east direction and the other “North-South Transit Corridor” (NSTC) in north-south direction.