Kazakhstan sees great potential as a global transit centre

Kazakhstan has the opportunity to become a global transit centre, experts here have highlighted.

For this purpose, the country has all the necessary components, specifically, geography, infrastructure and the communication development strategy, the experts said.

The catalyst for this process will be the largest road project, the ‘Western Europe-Western China’ international corridor.

According to Albert Rau, member of Mazhilis, the Lower House of Kazakh Parliament, there is a great future and economic advantages in the development of the country’s transport and transit potential and this had been highlighted by the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev in his book "The Era of Independence".

"This 8,000-kilometer long road corridor has allowed increasing road freight fr om China to the EAEU, and further to Europe. The Central Asian countries can have access to the corridor, too... In 2010, Kazakhstan went up in the Logistics Performance Index rating.

"In 2016, Kazakhstan jumped to 77th position among 160 different countries, and outranked all the EAEU and CIS countries. In the 21st century, Kazakhstan will be located at the intersection of communication flows between Europe and Asia. It is necessary to make the most effective use of this unique location in the interests of both Kazakhstan and the international community."

Albert Rau described the President as a strategist, who defined realistically "who we are, what we are and wh ere we are. This is a lesson which means weaknesses can be turned into strength. One of the priorities was social and inter-ethnic harmony. The second point is our geographical position. There is no access to the sea and communications are not developed. However, the transit potential was placed in a priority and we will turn this weakness into force by becoming a link between Europe and Asia."

Source