Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia Boost Transport Corridors

The Eurasian Development Bank’s assessment puts the three economies at the top of the list for transport corridor development spending relative to GDP, underscoring how infrastructure is being treated as a strategic necessity rather than a discretionary investment. In countries where geography already makes trade costly, better corridors can lower import prices, support exporters and attract transit flows. For landlocked economies such as Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia, the payoff can be especially large if projects connect them more efficiently to China, Russia and wider Eurasian routes. For Afghanistan, where reconstruction and access remain constrained by security and political risk, corridor spending reflects an attempt to keep the economy linked to regional supply chains despite persistent obstacles.

For investors, the mix is more complicated. Infrastructure-led growth can benefit contractors, materials suppliers, logistics operators and eventually domestic producers that gain cheaper access to markets. It can also support sovereign credit narratives if the projects improve long-term revenue generation. But the bear case is equally clear: high corridor spending relative to GDP can strain budgets, especially in economies with limited tax bases and volatile external funding. If traffic volumes fail to materialize, the result can be underused assets, weaker fiscal accounts and pressure on currencies and reserves.

The broader narrative is that Eurasia’s frontier economies are trying to buy strategic optionality through transport links at a time when trade routes are being reshaped by geopolitics, sanctions and supply-chain diversification. That makes corridor spending both a development tool and a macro-risk variable. The key issue for markets is whether these countries can turn expensive infrastructure into durable trade gains — or whether the spending simply reflects how costly it remains to do business at the edge of the regional economy.