Kazakhstan’s transport strategy advances in cooperation with global partners

Since its independence, Kazakhstan has made great efforts to develop its transport and transit potential and modernise transport corridors, having allocated over the past 15 years over $35 billion for these purposes, writes Marat Karabayev.

Marat Karabayev is the minister of transport of Kazakhstan.

Today, our transport industry is an area of profitable investments. The shortest routes from Europe to Central Asia, China and South-East Asia pass through our country. We have formed a network of efficient transit transcontinental corridors and routes.

TITR, or the Middle Corridor, is a single logistical solution linking transit flows between Europe, Central Asia and China. The route can become a continental bridge between the largest markets, halving the time of freight traffic and significantly reducing transport costs.

In 2022 and nine months of 2023, its cargo volumes have doubled.

We are working with our neighbours and partners in the region to regulate tariffs on the corridor. Today, we have already fixed the tariffs for container transportation on the route. We plan to stabilise and set them for at least five years.

In Tbilisi in October, Kazakh, Georgian, and Azerbaijani railways signed an agreement on establishing a joint venture on a parity basis to improve the quality of service on the Middle Corridor.

The expansion of the TITR Association will make it possible to promote the corridor approach along the route more effectively.

By the end of the year, the procedures for joining the Austrian Rail Cargo and other cargo operators from Germany should be finalised.

Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Hungary also expressed interest in joining the Association. My meetings with European Commissioners Adina Valean and Maros Ševčovič and EBRD President Odina Renaud-Basso in Brussels helped outline new horizons of practical partnership.

Today, we are also working with large European companies like Maersk, Alstom, DB Engineering, HHLA, Stadler, Jan De Nul and MSC.

Following President Tokayev’s visit to the US in September 2023, we signed a $1-billion agreement with the American WABTEC, a global provider of technology and digital solutions for railway transport.

China cooperation

Regarding the development of the Middle Corridor, our cooperation with China in the transport and transit sector cannot be overlooked. Kazakhstan has built effective interstate cooperation with China in all areas.

It was in Kazakhstan that the One Belt, One Road initiative (BRI) was first announced ten years ago, and today, our pragmatic participation in it is an essential component of this strategy.

In our view, BRI is one of the important platforms for international cooperation. Kazakhstan plays a special role in its implementation. As a huge inland continental state sharing a long border with China, we are making consistent efforts to serve as a transport and logistics hub of international importance.

For example, Kazakhstan accounts for about 85% of all land transit traffic from China to Europe.

We have launched such major infrastructure projects as the Kazakh-Chinese logistics centre in Lianyungang, the Khorgos dry port, the Western Europe-Western China transit highway, and the railway corridor from China to Iran.

We plan to lay 1,300 kilometres of new railway tracks within three years.

For us, cooperation with our partners in the framework of BRI is an example of Kazakhstan’s major economic projects being paired with a global initiative.

This cooperation favourably influences the development of the Middle Corridor. On 14 October 2023, Kazakhstan and China approved a draft Agreement on the Development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, which will provide favourable conditions for the route’s development and attract additional transit and foreign trade cargoes.

EU cooperation

We believe that for the successful development of the Middle Corridor, it is necessary to develop cooperation with all participants of the route, including the EU.

Therefore, we are more than happy to see the readiness of the European side to work together, also based on the recommendations in the EBRD study on developing sustainable transport connectivity between Central Asia and the EU.

There are already projects in Kazakhstan that will help to match our infrastructure capacity to the positive outlook in the study estimations.

During his working visit to Kazakhstan in October 2023, Hors Classe Adviser of the European Commission Henrik Hololei spoke about advancing investment cooperation with the EU in transport and transit and underlined that sustainable, ready-to-go projects would be prioritised.

We are ready to take the steps to contribute to the sustainability, competitiveness and operational efficiency of the route. I would like to underline that the projects mentioned above are backed by the government of Kazakhstan and open to European investors.

Their realisation will benefit the region’s economic outlook and enhance the transit capacity between Asia and Europe.

European companies are welcome to explore shipbuilding, port development, aircraft manufacturing, and the launch of postal and commodity hubs in Kazakhstan. We are eager to use the Central Asia-EU Investors’ Forum platform in January in Brussels to announce flagman projects under the Global Gateway.

In Kazakhstan, we put high hopes on our potential to become the region’s new transport and trade hub. And the EU, with its excellent transport capacity running the common market, impactful economic power, and globally renowned companies, is inarguably a partner of choice for us.