Kazakhstan strengthens measures with partner countries along Trans-Caspian Corridor
In line with the President’s Address to the Nation “The Economic course of a Just Kazakhstan,” the government of the country has been implementing the 2027 Road Map for the Elimination of “bottlenecks” and Development of the Middle Corridor signed between Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Türkiye, and between Kazakhstan and Georgia which will let boost the annual capacity of the Corridor to 10 million tons, Kazinform News Agency reports.
According to primeminister.kz, in November 2023, Kazakhstan and China inked a number of agreements on the development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, including China-Europe container trains, to ensure sufficient volume of transit cargo flow from the East to the West. These agreements were ratified by the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan on July 1, 2024.
A unified multimodal service was launched along the TITR to increase its competitiveness and attractiveness.
A single transport operator Middle Corridor Multimodal was registered at the Astana International Financial Cente The venture unites the railways administrations of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia for administering the route on the parity basis. The digitalization and optimization of transport operations including border crossing and terminal procedures play an important role in this process.
In order to improve the logistics service based on One-Stop-Shop principle, the IT systems of JSC NC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy were integrated with the customs module of DTC (Digital Trade Corridor) platform – Tez Customs, developed by Global DTC Kazakhstan Ltd.
On December 5, 2023 the Road Map for the Interaction of the Kazakhstan Temir Zholy and Global DTC Kazakhstan Ltd. The information systems of the railways of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have already been integrated into the platform. The same work is planned to be carried out with the Georgian railways.
As part of the China-Kazakhstan Trade and Logistics Company established in 2023 with the participation of Xi'an Free Trade Port Construction and Operation Co., Ltd and JSC NC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (on behalf of JSC Kedentransservice), a terminal was built in Xi’an Dry port.
The terminal which was opened on February 28, 2024, consolidates 40% of all container trains moving towards Kazakhstan, which hugely contributed to the rise of transit transportations along the TITR. Since the year beginning, transit flows along the TITR from China demonstrated almost twofold growth.
In 2023, the volume of transportations along the TITR rose by 65% compared to 2022, having reached 2.76 million tons (17 million tons in 2022). From January through July 2024, transportations reached 2.56 million tons which is 63% more compared to the same period in 2023 (1.57 million tons).
These achievements evidence effectiveness of the joint work with partners and importance of the Middle Corridor development. Not only the countries located along the Corridor but also Southeast Asia, the Persian Gulf and European countries are interested in its formation as a stable and competitive route.
