Silk Road Samarkand, in Uzbekistan, the largest tourist complex in Central Asia, is hosting leaders from the European Union and five Central Asian nations — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan — for the first-ever high-level summit between the regions. The first ever two-day EU-Central Asia Summit began, 3 April, with the motto ‘Investing in the Future’.
The leaders will discuss areas of cooperation including strengthening multilateral co-operation; enhancing economic, trade and investment ties; engaging on energy, climate neutral economy and connectivity, and cooperating on the green transition; and bolstering people-to-people contacts and mobility. The leaders will also participate in opening sessions of the Samarkand Climate Forum 2025, a two-day event, 4-5 April, bringing together world leaders, policymakers, climate experts and activists to tackle regional and global threats caused by climate change.
Bakhtiyor Fazilov, founder of Silk Road Samarkand, said: “Our complex continues to set high benchmarks for sustainable tourism and conference organisation. It is therefore both an honour, privilege and wholly appropriate that Silk Road Samarkand should be host to these two major events. Our event and tourism complex is not only enhancing Uzbekistan’s position on the global tourism map but also creating new sustainable opportunities for governmental, cultural and business connections.”
Silk Road Samarkand opened in August 2022 and represents an ideal venue for building a more sustainable and compatible future. The complex integrates advance energy-efficient solutions, with 2,750 solar panels with a combined capacity of 7,700 kilowatt installed on the rooftops to provide electricity for lighting and hot water across the complex. This system complements a 20-megawatt photovoltaic clean energy power plant located on the Chupan-Ota highland – a station supplying further electricity to the complex and to the local population.
Environmental balance has been a key focus of the development of the complex, with over 30,000 trees and shrubs planted across the grounds. Located on the outskirts of the historic city of Samarkand, the tourist centre reported surging demand in 2024 with a 50% increase in visitor numbers last year.
Silk Road Samarkand was built at a cost of $580m and now incorporates eight 5- and 4-star hotels with almost 1,200 rooms, an international congress centre, expo centre covering 4,000sqm, waterpark, parks and other open spaces, sports arenas and 30 restaurants. In 2025, Silk Road Samarkand will stage more key events including the 43rd UNESCO General Conference in November.
Read CMW’s Simon George’s feature on the Silk Road Samarkand complex here (p24-25)
Photo: President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev (right), greets European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen (left), for a first ever two-day EU-Central Asia Summit at the Silk Road Samarkand tourist complex.
