KHOROG, January 14, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan and China reached an agreement on a year-round operation of the Kulma-Qarasou border-crossing checkpoint on the Tajik-Chinese border in Gorno Badakhshan in 2011 and this became possible last year.  However, some restrictions have reportedly been imposed on passing through the crossing during winter period.

“All necessary conditions have been created for ensuring the year-round operation of the Kulma border crossing but some restrictions have been imposed because traffic via the crossing reduces considerably during winter period,” Isror Isrorov, deputy governor of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) told Asia-Plus in an interview.

“Therefore, the crossing will work six days in January (14, 15, 16, 28, 29 and 30), in February (4,5, 6, 26, 27 and 28) and in March (14, 15, 16, 27, 28 and 29),” the deputy governor said.

According to data of the GBAO customs service, an external trade turnover of Gorno Badakhshan in 2012 amounted to more than 33.3 million U.S. dollars, which was 10 million U.S. dollars more than in 2011.  Last year, more than 90 percent of goods were delivered to the region via the Kulma crossing.

We will recall that Tajik Government, represented by Minister of Transport Nizomiddin Hakimov, and Chinese Government, represented by Chinese Ambassador to Tajikistan Fan Xianrong, singed in Dushanbe an agreement on border-crossing checkpoints on the Tajik-Chinese border and regimes of operation for them on December 29, 2011.

Under this agreement, a status of international crossing was given to the Kulma-Qarasou border-crossing checkpoint.  The sides also agreed that this border-crossing checkpoint will operate year round.

Since May 1, 2008, the Kulma crossing operated every day, except weekends, from May though November.

Opened in 2004, the Tajik-China trade route runs from Khorog, the capital of Gorno Badakhshan in southeastern Tajikistan, over a high-altitude plateau and then down into China, where it ends in the city of Kashgar, 700 kilometers away.

As conditions are so tough at the Kulma border crossing, which is located on a mountain pass 4,400 meters high, until May 1 2008, the gateway had stayed open only 15 days out of every month, while from November through April it had been closed altogether.

According to data from the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan, a two-way trade between Tajikistan and Chine over the first ten months of 2012 valued at 565.2 million U.S. dollars.  This consisted of Tajikistan’s exports to China estimated at US$170.5 million and Tajikistan’s imports from China worth US$394.6 million.

It is to be noted that an average annual growth in trade between Tajikistan and China from 1992 to 2003 did not exceed 30 million U.S. dollars, while after introduction of the Kulma crossing into operation the average annual growth in trade between the two countries has increased and in 2008, trade between Tajikistan and China exceeded 700 million U.S. dollars.