EVENTS

Abstract           

Central Asia comprises of China's grand connectivity projects across Asia. Since the Belt and Road Initiative has been launched, there has been increased policy and academic interest in economic connections between Central Asia and China. Besides the emphasis on regional cooperation and integration for economic and social development in Central Asia, China's economic engagement with the region can be contested based on the actual economic complementarities. The Chinese presensce in the region has grown but the role of Central Asia has not yet changed and they are still a part of China's over-arching strategic bases of global production networks and supply chains. Looking at the trade patterns between China and Central Asia, the region is partnered merely on the basis of its critical location and benefits from being aligned to global production networks and supply chains. However, the region is poorly integrating into global value chain and it is questionable whether China would help Central Asia move-up the global value chain.

About the Speaker

Aravind Yelery is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Chinese Studies (ICS), New Delhi. Previously, he was associated with Shanghai Ji-Ou (Sino-European Commerce Ltd.) as a Sr. Corporate Consultant (Research). He has experience of being part of the academic as well as the corporate world during his seven years’ stay in China. Yelery’s research interests include China’s foreign policy, Chinese business, Chinese manufacturing trends, urbanization and Chinese government and politics. He has been awarded with an ICSSR sponsored project on WTO, anti-dumping and China’s market economy status and has also been actively involved in conducting workshops on doing business in China and conceptualizing the immersion program for Indian executives in China. He contributes regularly on China-related issues in a number of Indian newspapers.