Kazakhstan seek to be Central Asia’s transport and logistic hub, officials say
Unified tariff conditions, technological schemes and participation in international alliances have furthered Kazakhstan in becoming the transport and logistics hub of the Central Asian region, said Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) Vice President for Logistics Sanzhar Yelyubayev at a March 28 Central Communication Service round table.
As a member of Unified Transport and Logistics Company (UTLC) and Trans Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), Kazakhstan works to advance its transit potential. Successfully developing infrastructure logistics involves large world players in the transport market like China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) and Dubai Port World to Kazakh infrastructure facilities, he said.
Yelyubayev added large investments have been directed towards transport and logistics assets in recent years to build 2,500 new railway lines and completely renew the rolling stock, terminal and port infrastructure. Aktau and Kuryk ports are developing a high potential for multimodal transportation through the Caspian Sea and KTZ formed a transport and logistics centres network in key areas of cargo flow consolidation.
“Large transport infrastructure facilities implemented within the Nurly Zhol programme ensured high capacity of the planned cargo volumes. It allowed us to grow the rate of transit traffic twice in the promising China-Europe-China direction in 2017,” he said.
Moderator and Public Audit representative Murat Abenov supported Yelyubayev, saying the Nurly Zhol programme and Chinese Belt andRoad Initiative proposed in 2013 provided the complementary synergy to implement the strategy. The project contributed to the growth of transit traffic through Kazakhstan.
The round table centred on the country’s transport infrastructure efficiency. Experts deliberated using digital technologies in logistics and determined barriers and perspectives for developing transit traffic in the state.
The new Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) Customs Code coming into force in this year will simplify the procedures for vehicle border crossings and issuing document transportation for goods export, import and transit, said Kazakh Union of Transport workers (Kazlogistics) CEO Kanat Almagambetov.
Transport companies are attracting transit cargo transportation through Kazakhstan on the renewed and modernised infrastructure, as well as working on the Kuryk port route through the Caspian Sea using the Western Europe-Western China highway. The issue of increasing cargo transportation volume from and to Uzbekistan is relevant as the country has a favourable foreign policy, he added.
Almagambetov noted KTZ must increase its share of road traffic to support purchasing vehicles.
Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs transport logistics committee chair Yerkhat Iskaliyev spoke about digitising and implementing supply chain management to improve transport industry efficiency.
The next issue is the importance of informing Kazakh business partners and citizens about the transport sector transformations, said Trans-Logistics Kazakhstan chief editor and TLK Media CEO Zhanna Isingarina. The company specialises in providing Kazakh transport information support and complex logistics work, she noted.
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