ASTANA — For years, transport infrastructure in Eurasia was measured in kilometers of railway laid or highways built. Today, another question is becoming increasingly important: who is financing the region’s new transport geography? The latest update of the Eurasian Development Bank’s (EDB) Observatory of the Eurasian Transport Framework, released on July 23, offers an answer that extends well beyond infrastructure. Behind 402 transport projects worth $345 billion, with another $100 billion still in the pipeline, lies a changing balance of economic influence across the continent. The report suggests that transport is no longer simply about moving goods. It has become one of the clearest indicators of how different centers of power are shaping Eurasia’s future.
Photo credit: Ministry of Transport.
The numbers tell a more nuanced story
Russia remains by far the largest investor, accounting for roughly $219 billion, or 63% of all investments captured by the Observatory. Eight of the ten largest infrastructure projects are located in Russia, with the modernization of the Eastern railway polygon remaining the single biggest undertaking. That dominance reflects both the scale of Russia’s existing transport network and its continued focus on redirecting trade flows eastward.
Yet the report also illustrates that influence over Eurasia’s transport landscape is becoming increasingly diversified. Central Asia now accounts for more than $72 billion invested across 114 projects, representing over one-fifth of all investments in the Eurasian Transport Framework. Nearly half of that amount is concentrated in Kazakhstan, while major projects are also underway across Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. In 2025 alone, the region commissioned transport infrastructure worth approximately $6 billion, including Kazakhstan’s upgraded Dostyk-Moiynty railway, whose capacity increased fivefold after the construction of second tracks.
China has likewise become an increasingly visible player. According to the EDB, transport projects involving Chinese participation now exceed $12 billion, while financing from Chinese sources has surpassed $7 billion. Beijing’s role extends beyond loans, encompassing grants, engineering, construction and direct investment. Unsurprisingly, many of these projects are linked to the Belt and Road Initiative, including the strategically significant China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway.
A shift in how Eurasian infrastructure is financed
Another important shift is occurring in the structure of financing itself. While national governments continue to fund the majority of projects, international development banks and private investors are steadily expanding their role. Development finance institutions already participate in nearly 50 projects, with dozens more expected to seek multilateral financing. At the same time, 123 projects involve private capital, almost half of them in logistics and warehouse infrastructure, while another 27 projects could be implemented through public-private partnerships.
Taken together, these trends suggest that Eurasia’s transport system is no longer being built by governments alone. It is increasingly becoming a shared investment space where states, multilateral lenders and private investors pursue overlapping, though not always identical, interests. According to EDB Deputy Chairman and Chief Economist Evgeny Vinokurov, this reflects a much broader transformation underway across the continent. He argues that Eurasia is moving beyond isolated infrastructure investments toward the creation of an integrated transport system linking East-West and North-South corridors. As cross-border projects multiply and investment accelerates, particularly in Central Asia, transport infrastructure is evolving into the backbone of broader regional connectivity rather than a collection of standalone national projects.
“We are witnessing a phase transition from individual transport projects implemented across Eurasia at the beginning of this century toward the formation of the Eurasian Transport Framework, a comprehensive network of interconnected and mutually complementary transport corridors running East-West and North-South. …This large-scale infrastructure process will allow landlocked countries to improve conditions for trade, tourism and mobility,” Vinokurov said.
That conclusion echoes discussions held during the EDB Annual Meeting in Almaty in June, where policymakers, development institutions and transport operators discussed that the next challenge is no longer building additional roads but ensuring that roads, railways, ports, warehouses, customs systems and digital platforms function as a single, seamless network. Competitiveness, participants argued, will increasingly depend on coordination rather than concrete alone.
Perhaps this is the most important takeaway from the new Observatory. For much of the past two decades, discussions about Eurasian connectivity centered on individual corridors: the Middle Corridor, the North-South route or national railway modernization programs. Today, the conversation is gradually shifting toward something larger: the emergence of an interconnected transport architecture financed by multiple centers of capital, where Russia provides scale, China brings financing and construction capacity. And multilateral development banks expand access to long-term capital. Private investors increasingly view logistics as a commercial opportunity rather than merely supporting infrastructure.
In that sense, transport is becoming more than an economic sector. It is evolving into a platform where geopolitical interests, commercial investment and regional integration increasingly intersect. The map of Eurasia is still being drawn, but increasingly, it is capital, as much as geography, that determines where the next line will appear.
