【Global News】From May 12 to 14, 2026, the 3rd Silk Road Central Asia International Building and Decoration Expo kicked off at the Anhor Exhibition Hall in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. With the theme of "Green Innovation · Jointly Building the Silk Road", the expo has become a key platform for cross-border cooperation in the architectural field, attracting more than 500 enterprises from over 30 countries and regions including China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey, with architectural design emerging as the core topic of cross-border cooperation.
The booming infrastructure demand in Central Asia has made architectural design a key link in cross-border cooperation. Uzbekistan, at the heart of Central Asia, has proposed a goal of adding 200,000 residential units annually and plans to build 5 modern new cities, with an annual import demand for architectural decoration materials exceeding 4 billion US dollars. Across Central Asia, the infrastructure demand from 2025 to 2029 is expected to reach 1.23 trillion yuan, creating enormous space for cross-border architectural design cooperation.
During the expo, more than 20 professional forums were held, focusing on architectural design-related topics such as Central Asian urban renewal, sustainable development and standard alignment. Experts from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and the Asian Development Bank shared cutting-edge trends, while designers and enterprises from various countries discussed in-depth on localized adaptation of architectural design, green low-carbon design and digital design applications.
A number of cross-border architectural design cooperation projects were unveiled at the expo. The Suzhou Garden Design Institute of China and the Uzbekistan Cultural Heritage Agency launched the "Oriental Garden" project, planning to replicate the Wangshi Garden landscape in downtown Tashkent. A Shandong prefabricated building enterprise also displayed a modular house design with 9-level seismic resistance for Central Asia's seismic zones, which can shorten the construction period by two-thirds. These projects fully reflect the complementary advantages of cross-border architectural design cooperation.
Digital and green technologies have become important supports for cross-border architectural design cooperation. It is reported that the application rate of BIM technology in large-scale Central Asian projects has risen to 40%, and Uzbekistan will enforce new building carbon emission regulations from 2026, making green architectural design a core competitive advantage for cross-border enterprises.
Industry insiders stated that the expo has built an important bridge for architectural design exchanges between countries along the Silk Road, helping to connect the supply capacity of global architectural design with the huge demand in Central Asia. As cross-border cooperation in architectural design continues to deepen, it will further promote the high-quality development of infrastructure construction along the Belt and Road.