For more than two millennia, Samarkand City of Uzbekistan stood at the center of the ancient Silk Road, which had been a meeting point where merchants, scholars, diplomats, and travelers from China, Persia, India, and Europe exchanged goods, ideas, religions, and technologies. Known historically as one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, Samarkand developed rapidly under the Timurid Empire and became renowned for its Islamic architecture, scientific scholarship, and its beautiful and cosmopolitan culture.
Today, the city’s iconic blue-tiled madrasas, grand mosques, and caravanserai remnants still reflect centuries of cultural exchange that once connected Asia to the world. The famed Registan Square, often regarded as one of the masterpieces of Islamic civilization, symbolizes Samarkand’s legacy as a center of learning, trade, and diplomacy.
It was therefore no coincidence that Uzbekistan hosted the 59th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Samarkand under the theme “Crossroads of Progress: Advancing the Region’s Connected Future.” Much like the Silk Road once linked civilizations through trade caravans and cultural exchange, the meeting focused on building a new generation of connectivity across Asia and the Pacific, this time through digital infrastructure, energy integration, artificial intelligence, and regional economic cooperation.
Held from May 3 to 6, the gathering brought together ministers, central bank governors, development experts, business leaders and journalists at a moment of growing geopolitical uncertainty, supply chain realignment, climate pressures, and accelerating technological transformation.
Two major initiatives intrigued the discussions during the meeting including the Asia-Pacific Digital Highway and the Pan-Asia Power Grid Initiative (PAGI). Together, they represented an ambitious vision for reshaping Asia’s future through cross-border digital and energy networks.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev addresses the opening session of the Asian Development Bank's 59th annual meeting, acknowledging the role of the ADB and other international financial institutions in the current large-scale reforms in Uzbekistan and in other countries in Asia.
ADB pushes for energy integration across Asia
ADB officials described digital connectivity as “essential infrastructure” for inclusive growth across Asia and the Pacific. According to presentations delivered during the meeting, the region still faces a digital infrastructure financing gap estimated at 320 billion USD by 2035.
The proposed Asia-Pacific Digital Highway initiative seeks to address this challenge through a massive cross-border digital integration effort involving fiber optic networks, submarine cables, regional data centers, internet exchange points, cybersecurity systems, and interoperable digital public infrastructure. Therefore, ADB aims to mobilize approximately 20 billion USD in investments by 2035, including 15 billion USD from ADB resources and an additional 5 billion USD through co-financing partners.
The initiative envisions five major digital connectivity corridors stretching across Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific. Among the most strategically significant is the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Digital Corridor, designed to reduce the digital isolation of landlocked economies in Central and West Asia through terrestrial fiber infrastructure, green data centers, and regional internet exchange hubs.
ADB projects that by 2035 the initiative could provide improved connectivity to 650 million people, give first-time broadband access to 200 million people, connect 300,000 schools and more than 25,000 hospitals, and create approximately four million jobs. The initiative also places high emphasis on artificial intelligence infrastructure. With this regard, ADB opened the Center for AI Innovation and Development (CAID), a Seoul-based platform backed by a 20 million USD contribution from the Government of the Republic of Korea. Speaking of CAID, it will focus on three core areas such as strengthening AI readiness and governance systems, piloting AI solutions in sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, education, and climate resilience, and building AI-related skills and institutional capacity across developing member countries.
Furthermore, ADB officials argued that digital integration is no longer simply about internet access. Instead, it is increasingly tied to economic competitiveness, public service delivery, disaster resilience, and participation in emerging AI-driven industries.
ADB President Masato Kanda urged Asia and the Pacific to "act together to develop together" through stronger cross-border connections that drive resilience and inclusive growth.
Parallel to the digital discussions, the Annual Meeting also highlighted growing importance behind the Pan-Asia Power Grid Initiative (PAGI), which is also an ambitious proposal aimed at accelerating cross-border electricity trade and clean energy integration throughout Asia and the Pacific. The initiative reflects a major regional dilemma that Asia-Pacific economies continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels despite rapid growth in renewable energy investment. ADB data presented during the meeting showed that coal and oil products still account for roughly 72 percent of the region’s total energy supply.
At the same time, energy demand continues to surge. Electricity production in the Asia-Pacific region has increased by 266 percent since 2000, while carbon emissions from fuel combustion have risen by 147 percent. PAGI aims to address this challenge by creating interconnected regional electricity systems capable of sharing renewable energy resources across borders. The initiative seeks to bridge energy access gaps, strengthen grid resilience, lower emissions, and improve regional energy security. Moreover, ADB officials emphasized that the region possesses enormous but unevenly distributed renewable energy potential. Hydropower resources such as in Bhutan and Nepal, solar and wind capacity in India and Mongolia, gas reserves in Bangladesh, and renewable expansion opportunities across Central Asia could all become part of a more integrated regional energy market. The initiative envisions a phased integration process beginning with domestic grid modernization, followed by subregional interconnections, continent-wide integration, and eventually interregional linkages extending toward the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.
Importantly, ADB’s target is to mobilize 50 billion USD by 2035, integrate 20 gigawatts of renewable energy across borders, construct 22,000 circuit kilometers of transmission lines, and improve electricity access for 200 million people. This is also the reason why the initiative is also designed as a geopolitical and economic integration platform. Rather than treating energy projects as isolated national programs, PAGI seeks to create interconnected regional systems that can share electricity, stabilize grids, and reduce costs through coordinated planning and investment.
Mongolia positions itself as regional connector
For Mongolia, the themes discussed in Samarkand carried particular strategic importance. In Mongolia’s official statement delivered by the Deputy Minister of Finance, B.Khulan, the government framed the country as both vulnerable to global volatility and uniquely positioned to benefit from emerging regional connectivity initiatives. She emphasized that Mongolia, as a landlocked and commodity-dependent economy, remains highly exposed to transport costs, commodity cycles, and external shocks affecting global supply chains and energy markets.
However, B.Khulan also highlighted new opportunities arising from global structural shifts toward clean energy and regional integration. She stressed that Mongolia possesses significant wind and solar resources, as well as critical minerals necessary for the global energy transition. With improved infrastructure, financing, and regulatory frameworks, these assets could become “new engines of growth” while contributing to broader regional energy security.
The delegation also used the platform to underline its expanding role within regional cooperation frameworks. This year, Mongolia assumes the chairmanship of the CAREC Program and will host the 25th CAREC Ministerial Conference and Business Forum in Ulaanbaatar in September 2026. According to the statement made by the deputy minister, Mongolia views this as an opportunity to advance regional connectivity, logistics modernization, trade facilitation, and investment-ready cross-border projects. In this regard, B.Khulan identified four priority areas for deeper cooperation with ADB that are firstly renewable energy and energy storage, secondly the resilient urban and regional infrastructure, third the private sector financing and SME development, and lastly the climate adaptation through blended finance solutions.
Last but not the least in the statement, the government announced preparations to host the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP17) in August 2026 and highlighted that the event would be a platform to mobilize international partnerships for sustainable land management and climate resilience.
In conclusion, the significance of the Samarkand meeting extended beyond development financing announcements. It reflected a broader shift in how Asian connectivity is being described in the 21st century. For decades, regional integration discussions centered primarily on highways, railroads, pipelines, and ports. But the conversations in Samarkand suggested that future connectivity may increasingly revolve around digital infrastructure, AI ecosystems, renewable electricity trading, data governance, cybersecurity standards, and integrated regional energy systems.
In many ways, the modern initiatives discussed at the Annual Meeting mirror the historic role Samarkand once played along the Silk Road which definitely serves as a bridge between regions, economies, and civilizations. Only this time, the caravans are being replaced by fiber optic cables, AI platforms, green energy corridors, and interconnected digital and power grids stretching across Asia and beyond.
