I grew up in Danghara, a city in Tajikistan's Khatlon Region, about 100 km south of Dushanbe, the country's capital. To many, Danghara is just a small city, but to me, it represents the growing opportunities brought by the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

In 2014, Chinese enterprises invested in the city's Zhongtai New Silk Road Agriculture and Textile Industrial Park, one of the largest textile facilities in Central Asia. It created over 600 direct jobs and more than 2,000 indirect jobs. Watching my hometown transform, I realized that business has the power to change people's lives.

That realization sparked my ambition: One day, I would establish my own company to promote trade cooperation between Tajikistan and China, contributing to the prosperity of both countries.

During my undergraduate years at Tajikistan National University, where I majored in finance and economics, I observed a clear trend: Young Tajiks were increasingly drawn to affordable and high-quality Chinese products, smartphones, smartwatches and other tech goods. Seeing an opportunity, I began importing from China's Alibaba platform and selling through Instagram. At first, my income was modest, only $300-$400 a month. But as I learned to manage procurement, customer engagement and marketing, my profits soon rose to about $1,000 monthly. Within two years, I had built a following of over 40,000 on Instagram.

Encouraged by this success, I registered my own trading company and launched the brand Azon.tj. I assembled a small but dedicated team to handle logistics, warehousing and information technology operations. A Chinese saying describes my business perfectly: "Although a sparrow is small, it has all the necessary organs." My startup was small, but it had everything it needed to thrive.

China and Tajikistan's economic ties have strengthened dramatically in recent years. China is Tajikistan's largest investor and a vital trade partner. In 2023, our bilateral trade reached $3.926 billion, an increase of more than 50 percent from the year before. This growth has inspired many young Tajiks, myself included, to pursue studies in China to sharpen our skills.

In April 2023, I arrived in China for the first time to pursue a master of business administration degree in international trade and management at Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, located in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. The program, taught entirely in English, provided me with invaluable academic knowledge. However, by the time I graduated in December 2024, I realized that if I truly wanted to build a career between our two nations, mastering the Chinese language would be essential. 

Following my professor's advice, I enrolled in a six-month intensive Chinese language course at Tianjin University in March. The university's teachers designed lessons tailored to my needs, and I immersed myself in the language not only in class but also in daily life, chatting with vendors at local markets, making friends and engaging with the community. Within two months, I passed the Level 4 exam of HSK, an international standardized test of the Chinese language, which is also a milestone that gave me confidence to continue pushing forward.

Alongside my language studies, I attend online courses in international trade, learning the nuts and bolts of business operations—company registration, import-export procedures, customs clearance and taxation. My plan after graduation is to first work at an international company to gain practical experience and expand my professional network. In time, I hope to establish a trade-focused business that introduces more Chinese products to Tajikistan while also bringing Tajik goods into the Chinese market. BR

The author is a student at Tianjin University. Yin Wei, a university staff member, contributed to this article 

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson 

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