EDB–India Exim Bank Webinar Highlights Natural Synergy and Trade Finance Potential in India–Central Asia Economic Cooperation
Almaty, Mumbai, 11 September 2025. In a significant step towards enhancing regional economic integration, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) and the Export-Import Bank of India (India Exim Bank) co-hosted a webinar on September 10, 2025, marking the first collaborative initiative between the two institutions. This strategic engagement aims to deepen economic and financial ties between India and the Central Asian region, focusing on promoting greater cooperation in trade, investment, and development finance.
The webinar, titled ‘Bridging Borders: Role of Trade Finance in Enhancing India–Central Asia Trade’, explored how trade finance can unlock new opportunities for collaboration and economic growth in the region. While trade between India and Central Asia has shown consistent growth, substantial untapped potential remains. Both regions stand to benefit significantly from deeper economic engagement, particularly through the facilitation of cross-border trade and financial partnerships.
The EDB Management Board Chairman Mr. Nikolai Podguzov stated: «We as a Bank provide approximately $2.5 billion in annual financing across various sectors and currencies, maintaining a strategic focus on Central Asia where our portfolio has reached nearly $9 billion. A key tool for facilitating trade expansion, our trade finance operations — including letters of credit and guarantees — exceed 10% of the total portfolio. We actively co-finance projects with other International Financial Institutions and collaborate with export credit agencies to attract concessional funding. Beyond financing individual deals, our broader goal is to help shape a steady, long-term trade corridor between India and Central Asia. On India’s side, we see strong interest in sectors like electric equipment, machinery, transport vehicles and pharmaceutical products, among others. From Central Asia, there is growing export potential in mineral fuels, fertilizers, inorganic chemicals, precious stones and metals. So India indeed is a promising direction for us.»
Speaking at the webinar, Ms. Harsha Bangari, Managing Director, Export-Import Bank of India, welcomed the participants and highlighted “Trade finance is a critical enabler of international trade, with nearly 80% of all international trade using some type of trade finance instruments. However, the global trade finance gap has been widening, due to the pandemic, geopolitical issues, increasing protectionism, and tightening financial conditions. In response to these challenges, Exim Bank is working towards bridging the financing gaps in trade transactions, with its recent initiatives”.
The Webinar also featured a knowledge sharing session on the trade finance potential between India and Central Asia, by the respective experts from EDB and India Exim Bank. The webinar also had the release of a joint research report ‘Exploring Trade and Investment Relations between India and Central Asia: Unlocking Economic Benefits’. The report analyses the untapped potential of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two dynamically growing economic centres.
The report lists Central Asia and India among the world's fastest-growing economies. Over the past 15 years, their economies have grown approximately twofold. With an aggregate GDP of US$ 522 billion in 2024, the economy of Central Asia is developing fast and has the potential to grow further. India which is the fifth-largest economy in terms of nominal GDP of US$ 3.9 trillion in 2024, has emerged as the fastest-growing major economy in the world, supported by huge domestic demand and investment activity.
Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, being geographically landlocked, remains distant from the major global trade and economic centers. International trade remains below potential levels, confined by an arid climate, limitations in connectivity, market access issues, limited bilateral engagement, and difficult trade and transport facilitation. However, the study notes that with huge mineral resources, increasing diversification of economies, and a growing focus on regional cooperation, these landlocked nations have the potential to be integrated as important players in the global economy.
Central Asia’s strategic location as a land bridge between Asia and Europe imbues it with undeniable geopolitical significance for India. This partnership encompasses a broad spectrum of shared interests, including security, energy, and other economic and commercial opportunities.
The study highlights that from financial services to contracting, engineering, and management consultancy, Indian firms possess the expertise and manpower to contribute significantly to Central Asia’s infrastructure development. India could be a vital source of goods exports and technical know-how in diverse sectors such as infrastructure, hospitality, and medical equipment.
India’s trade with Central Asian nations has exhibited an upward pattern, currently amounting to US$ 1720.4 million in 2023, driven by India’s imports from Central Asia. Pharmaceutical products accounted for 37.9% of India’s total exports to the Central Asian region, followed by electrical machinery and equipment (12.1% of the total exports), machinery and mechanical appliances (10.4%), edible meat (5%), and fruits and nuts (3.2%) among others. Mineral fuels and oils were the major imported commodity by India, accounting for 35.3% of the total imports from the region, followed by fertilizers (21.3% of total imports), and inorganic chemicals (13%) in 2023.
The study highlights that India and Central Asian countries offer natural synergy for expanding economic cooperation due to their complementarities across a spectrum of sectors including textiles, pharmaceuticals, mining, metallurgy, and hydrocarbons, which presents mutually beneficial opportunities. Beyond these established areas, the study identifies renewable energy, mineral processing, healthcare, agribusiness and food processing, infrastructure development, construction, and chemicals sector as promising and rewarding areas for economic and commercial engagement.
“The abundance of natural resources in the Central Asian Republics presents a wealth of opportunities, particularly in sectors that align with Central Asia’s unique strengths. Investments in logistics and transportation infrastructure, capitalizing on Central Asia’s position as a crucial link between continents, hold immense promise. With the assistance of India Exim Bank, Indian project exporters have secured project export contracts comprising infrastructure development and power generation and transmission projects in countries such as Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan in Central Asia, contributing to economic development in host countries. India Exim Bank remains committed in its pursuit to support Indian companies in their internationalization endeavors and in expanding their presence in partner countries”, said Ms. Harsha Bangari, Managing Director, Export-Import Bank of India.
India’s bilateral engagements with countries in Central Asia have been modest owing to limited connectivity, when compared to other partner countries of the region. This relationship could, however, be bolstered by collaboration in sectors like renewable energy, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, tourism and hospitality, information and communication technologies (ICT), logistics and transportation, besides the traditional oil and gas sector.
"Together with our colleagues at the India Exim Bank, we believe that India and Central Asia have significant potential for trade, investment and financial cooperation. Central Asian economy is growing faster than the emerging markets and the global economy as a whole. Since 2000, the total GDP of the Central Asian countries has increased more than 10 times. They have vast potential to trade and invest with India. One of the key solutions could be the development of the International North-South Transport Corridor, which is creating new opportunities for economic cooperation between India and Central Asia. Large scaled infrastructure projects require joint efforts of governments, businesses, expert community, and international financial organizations," said Mr. Nikolai Podguzov, Chairman of the EDB Management Board.
The joint study suggests a few strategies to enhance cooperation between India and Central Asian countries in order to further harness bilateral trade and investment opportunities which could include enhancing trade based on identified potential, cooperation in digital public infrastructure, facilitation of market entry through joint ventures and technological collaboration, enhancing access to trade finance, and improving transport and logistics through concerted efforts. The study also presents several key policy recommendations for development of hard and soft infrastructure for further facilitating bilateral trade and investments between the regions.
The full version of the EDB and India Exim Bank's joint publication is available on the websites of the EDB and India Exim Bank.
Additional Information:
The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) is a multilateral development bank investing in Eurasia. For more than 19 years, the Bank has worked to strengthen and expand economic ties and foster comprehensive development in its member countries. By July 2025, the EDB’s cumulative portfolio comprised 319 projects with a total investment of US $19.1 billion. Its portfolio consists principally of projects with an integration effect in transport infrastructure, digital systems, green energy, agriculture, manufacturing and mechanical engineering. The Bank adheres to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and ESG principles in its operations.
The EDB is implementing three mega-projects as part of its 2022–2026 Strategy: the Eurasian Transport Network, the Eurasian Agricultural Goods Distribution System and the Central Asian Water and Energy Complex..
The Export-Import Bank of India (India Exim Bank) was set up in 1981 by an Act of Parliament and is wholly owned by the Government of India. It is the principal financial institution for coordinating the working of institutions engaged in financing exports and imports. India Exim Bank, has over the last four decades, played a catalytic role in facilitating India’s integration with the global economy by promoting, financing and facilitating India’s international trade and investment. The Bank’s range of programmes have helped Indian enterprises become competitive and develop a global footprint.
For Further Information, please contact:
EDB Media Centre at T: +7 (727) 244 40 44, ext. 6148 and 3730; E: pressa@eabr.org W: www.eabr.org
or
India Exim Bank Research & Analysis Group at T: +91 22 2286 0310; E: rag@eximbankindia.in W: www.eximbankindia.in