Description
The Khorgos International Centre of Boundary Cooperation (ICBC), situated on the Kazakhstan-China border, represents one of the most ambitious projects to transform a historically peripheral borderland into a hub of economic integration through connectivity and people-to-people exchanges. The paper will explore the Khorogos ICBC as a case study to investigate how BEZs can act as regional cooperation agents in Central Asian republics. It will investigate how Khorgos facilitates cross-border trade, investment, and mobility, despite experiencing uneven development, government asymmetries and geopolitical contestations. The study will seek to untangle the intersection of the local and regional dynamics with border global initiatives, such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the possibility of regionalism in Central Asia.
The paper will adopt qualitative case study approach drawing on policy documents, trade statistics, available academic literature and media reports, complemented by theoretical insights from the regional integration process and border economic zones. The study will focus on three key aspects - (i) Economic Integration- explaining BEZ at Khorgos fosters trade facilitation, logistics, business cooperation and infrastructure development. (ii) Social and Cultural Interaction - exploring how BEZ creates opportunities for labor mobility, tourism and small-scale entrepreneurship. (iii) Geopolitical Implications, assessing the strategies adopted by Khorgos to strategically balance Kazakhstan and other Central Asian States in navigating relations with China, Russia, and Eurasian neighborhood.
Some initial studies have suggested that Khorogos has succeeded in boosting cross-border flows and positioning itself as a symbolic gateway of the BRI. It demonstrates opportunities for the borderlands to be transformed into spaces of opportunity, reducing the transactional costs of trade and encouraging people-to-people contact. The study will focus on how the institution of Khorgos ICBC has been an agent for economic spillover, strengthening the partnership, or whether it has remained an institution to be manipulated by the dominant power.
