MODEL OF SUSTAINABLE INTRAREGIONAL ECONOMIC COOPERATION AMONG CENTRAL ASIAN COUNTRIES

This article develops the theoretical principles of sustainable intraregional cooperation. A structural and functional model has been developed that takes into account institutional coordination, investment, infrastructure connectivity, and environmental constraints. The article's methodological basis consists of systems and institutional approaches, a comparative analysis of regionalism models, structural and functional modeling, and methods for constructing composite indicators. The paper clarifies the concept of sustainable intraregional economic cooperation as a coordinated interaction between states and economic entities, in which joint projects create a distributed long-term effect and do not degrade the resource base of neighboring countries. The proposed model links an institutional platform, a common investment space, transport and logistics, water and energy, digital, and environmental and social subsystems with regional value chains. For its subsequent empirical testing, a system of indicators has been developed: a cooperation intensity index, a sustainable performance indicator, a panel specification, and a synergy assessment. It is shown that positive feedback only occurs when a portion of the regional impact is reinvested while simultaneously controlling debt, environmental, and distribution risks. The novelty of this methodological approach lies in its combination of a project-based, functional logic of cooperation with environmental constraints and a verifiable system of indicators, without equating the intensity of relationships with the sustainability of their results.

Central Asia, intraregional cooperation, sustainable development, institutional coordination, investment, infrastructure connectivity, water and energy complex, composite index.

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2026-08-25