 India has always been the magnetic dreamland for our friends in Central Asia. Modern India, the world's largest democracy and industrial powerhouse leading the world in IT and advanced medical sciences, today India is considered a major economic engine of the world. The famous trading Silk Route facilitated commercial and cultural bonding between the two regions. These centuries-old relations are now developing and emerging into closer and deeper economic ties. In modern times, this region has gained a strategic importance on account of its geographic location, demographic potential and its growing economies, creating enormous scope for pragmatic and profitable cooperation with India. The end of the Soviet Union created a new political reality on the vast expanse of Eurasia. Five new Central Asian republics emerged, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. India was among the first countries to recognize the independence of these states. Exchange of high-level visits have indeed set the temple to chart out the scope and direction of cooperation. An observer to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, India participated for the first time in 2009 on the summit level. Blessed with mineral wealth and natural resources, the region is thought to contain key global energy reserves. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have large quantities of proven gas and oil reserves and Turkmenistan is also known for its vast quantities in gas reserves. Hydroelectric power can be attained from the enormous surplus hydro resources of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The potential lies for India to fulfill its energy requirements and in turn provide markets to these nations. Why will roots need to be chalked out? Accessing the oil and gas from this region remains a major obstacle due to the difficult terrain to traverse, prohibitive cost of transportation and logistical difficulties. There is great investment potential for India in pipeline construction, refineries, infrastructure building and hydroelectric power in this region. India and Central Asia complement each other in terms of manpower and markets. The region has a huge consumer market hungry for range of goods and services for which India has the potential to provide it already being accepted as a reliable partner. Recently, these five countries and India have taken an upsurge in bilateral cooperation. However, the flow of business has started and opportunities are being explored. ITPO regularly organizes exhibitions in these countries. We need to urgently work in this field to promote Indian products, fortunately well known in the local market. Indian medicines and healthcare products are exported to almost all Central Asian countries which collectively constitute a huge market. Trade is not the only thing. India can step into manufacturing and the other focus is on industrial activities as Central Asian states want value addition in their own countries. Uzbek entrepreneurs are keen to use considerable experience of Indian textile industry as it produces large quantities of cotton and silk. Indian manufacturing and investment companies are still apprehensive about entering new unfamiliar markets of some of the Central Asian countries. One of the main impediments is the non-availability of hard currency, lack of conversion facility services and delay in remittances. The communication links are also problematic. Under Indian technical and economic cooperation, several IT institutes have been established in Central Asian countries. The ITEC programs, particularly in HRD, have become the cornerstone of India's economic involvement in this region. As ITEC partner, students from these countries have been attending various training courses in India under slots allotted by a government of India. Indian Uzbek Indian IT Center was also established in 2006. Government of India has set up an industrial training center in Ashgabat under the ITEC program executed by HMT International Limited. In the educational sphere, our partnership is reaching greater heights. Several students from these states study in Indian universities to lead the dynamically growing countries. Together with the IGNO, we opened a new institute of distant education. Our students as a future diplomat, they are very interested in India. This is the basis for cooperation of our future young generation. The two regions have overlapping and often competing regional affiliations. Interactions in UN and other fora have been close and mutually supportive. Tourism is one of the aspects of our economic relations. There is great potential for India to build, develop and manage hotels and resorts in these countries. Cultural ties constitute an important pillar of our bilateral relations. Many people just know India from Soviet times and we were brought up on Indian films. Imparages for deeper cooperation and positive engagement in the economic realm are very important for both regions to prosper peacefully.