“In whatever country the International North–South Transport Corridor begins and ends, almost all of its routes run through Kazakhstan,” Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin said during his remarks at the opening of the first transport trade and export forum “North-South” in Aktau.
According to him, by 2027, the capacity of the eastern direction of the International Transport Corridor “North-South” is planned to increase to 10 million tons per year.
The Deputy Prime Minister noted that the idea to organize an event of this format originated in April 2024 in Kabul during a trilateral meeting of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. During this meeting, the parties discussed the potential opportunities and existing barriers in the transportation of goods along the North-South corridor and came to a common understanding of the need to develop transparent “rules of the game” to simplify transportation and carriers’ access to infrastructure.
“Today, the capacity of the eastern direction of the North-South transport corridor through Kazakhstan is 6 million tons. We are actively developing the railway infrastructure to bring the capacity of the eastern branch to 10 million tons per year by 2027, and to 20 million tons by 2030. It is planned to allocate $1.9 billion of investments for this purpose. Part of these funds is supposed to be attracted on preferential terms through the Eurasian Development Bank for priority integration infrastructure projects in the EAEU perimeter: modernization of the Orsk–Kandyagash – Makat – Beineu –Bolashak and Iletsk-1–Aktobe railway sections,” Serik Zhumangarin noted.
At the meetings of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev repeatedly stressed the role of Kazakhstan as the center of transport and logistics integration of the EAEU. These and other large-scale works on the modernization of Kazakhstan’s transport infrastructure will help to connect global markets and turn the region into the largest transport and logistics hub. ///official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, 19 July 2024