Along the highway in the Alai Valley, the preliminary survey and demarcation work for the Saretash International Transport and Logistics Center project has just been completed. The Kyrgyzstan National Investment Agency and local enterprise Textile Trans have officially signed a memorandum of understanding for project construction.

This hub, located only 70 kilometers from the Irkeshtam Port on the China Kyrgyzstan border, is expected to attract up to $100 million in investment. Once completed, it will become a key transit node connecting the Chinese and South Asian markets in southern Central Asia. As of mid September 2026, the preliminary preparation work for land leveling of the project site has been initiated, and the design of the customs supporting facilities is progressing simultaneously.

Connecting multiple cross-border freight channels

Saretash is located on the Osh Saretash Irkeshtam highway, which is also the intersection of roads leading to Tajikistan. The project is equipped with standardized warehousing, transfer stations, one-stop customs services, and a digital freight tracking system covering the entire chain.

It mainly serves the cargo transfer of the China Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan freight corridor, which can be extended to the direction of Pakistan in the long term. The relevant corridors have been included in the draft logistics framework map of Kyrgyzstan for 2026-2030, forming a cross-border logistics layout with the China Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan railway project for north-south coordination. Previously, the Kyrgyzstan side tested the China Pakistan transit route that bypasses Afghanistan, covering a total distance of about 3300 kilometers from Bishkek to Karachi. The efficiency of this passage is continuously being optimized.

Open up the South Asian sea outlet to the south

The project is synchronized with the planning of the textile manufacturing industry cluster, relying on the advantages of transit logistics to establish processing capacity and undertake the benefits of two-way trade. In September of this year, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan signed a transit trade agreement, planning to increase the bilateral annual trade volume from the current about 16 million US dollars to 200 million US dollars within two years. Kyrgyzstan has listed Karachi, Kassim Port, and Gwadar Port as core export directions. After the landing of the Saretash Logistics Center, it will significantly reduce the logistics costs of Chinese goods transiting through Central and South Asia, further activate the vitality of regional cross-border trade, and fill the key gap in transit supporting facilities for the road cross-border channel before the operation of the China Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan Railway.

From the transit station in the Alai Valley to the South Asian seaport thousands of kilometers away, this remote logistics hub in the valley is gradually turning the dream of Central Asian landlocked countries to go abroad into a tangible reality.Editor/Cheng Liting