Central Asia Economic Paper No. 5, November 2012
By Sebastien Peyrouse
The UAE is now Turkmenistan’s fifth-largest trade partner.
The UAE presents itself as an attractive alternative partner, offering low-interest loans with no political conditions, and serving as a trade crossroads between Central Asia, the Middle East and South-east Asia.
The development of Islamic financing is one of the drivers being used by the UAE to establish itself in Central Asia.
Emirati firms are in the process of locat-ing land for wheat production in both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
