Looking Back at a Hot Railroad Summer for Central Asia and Afghanistan
September 11th, 2025
Via The Diplomat, a look back at the summer of Central Asian railroads, when – in July – Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan all signed agreements with Afghanistan related to the development of railways: On July 31, Turkmenistan signed a $5 million agreement with Afghanistan to jointly develop and invest in the expansion of Torghundi, a dry […]
Read more »The Changing Skies Over Central Asia
August 6th, 2025
Via The Diplomat, an article on how – with a rapid expansion in flights to, from, and within the region – the aviation industry is starting to reshape Central Asia: For all the talk of infrastructure corridors, the real transport success story of the last few years in Central Asia has been in the air. […]
Read more »Risk and Reward in Central Asia’s Critical Raw Materials Boom
May 15th, 2025
Via The Diplomat, a look at how – as Brussels, Beijing, Moscow, and Washington scramble to secure key materials for clean energy and new tech – they have begun to size up the region’s potential. Not long ago, critical raw materials (CRMs) – metals and minerals essential for technology, green energy, and defense – were […]
Read more »China’s Expanding Footprint in Uzbekistan
April 1st, 2025
Via The Diplomat, a look at how Tashkent is seeking to maintain strong economic ties with Beijing while addressing public concerns about their possible impacts on the country’s sovereignty: Sinophobia has been noticeably on the rise in Uzbekistan in recent weeks, especially on social media. Increasing viral content about unverified land sales to Chinese investors and the […]
Read more »Afghanistan and Uzbekistan Reach Agreement On Railway Project
February 26th, 2025
Via AMU.tv, a report on a new agreement between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan on a railway project: Taliban’s deputy chief minister, Abdul Ghani Baradar, said on Sunday that they reached an agreement with Uzbekistan on the planned Hairatan-Herat railway project as the Uzbek side will send its team for feasibility studies. Addressing reporters upon returning from […]
Read more »‘It Risks Becoming a Venice in the Desert’: The Dark Side of Uzbekistan’s Tourism Boom
February 14th, 2025
Via BBC, a report on Uzbekistan’s ambitious tourism drive: The Uzbekistan government is on an ambitious tourism drive – but is sparring with heritage experts over how to protect its historical sites. The sound of a jackhammer rattles through the air. In Bukhara, a former trading hub on the ancient Silk Road in what is […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.