BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 12. Kazakhstan’s role in inter-regional transport and trade is pivotal, connecting Asia to Europe, International Road Transport Union’s (IRU) General Delegate to Eurasia Vadim Zakharenko told Trend.
He noted that last year, over 1 million containers transited through Kazakhstan.
“As a landlocked country, Kazakhstan has significantly invested in robust infrastructure and overland transport to connect to global markets. It announced a few years ago that transport and transit development are among the country’s top priorities. Since 2015, Kazakhstan has been implementing “Nurly Zhol”, a national programme to build and modernise infrastructure and enhance transit,” Zakharenko said.
In his words, Kazakhstan is also actively pursuing trade digitalisation.
“Together with Uzebekistan, it was the first country to start the TIR Digitalisation project in November 2020, which was extended towards Tajikistan in May 2021 and Kyrgyzstan in March 2022. Green lanes prioritising digital TIR movements are in place at the border between Yallama, Uzebekistan and Konysbayeva, Kazakhstan, where over 480 digital TIR transports have been conducted since the start of the project in November 2020,” he said.
Furthermore, Zakharenko added, during the recent International Transport and Logistics Forum in Almaty, Kazakhstan announced its ambitious goal to revamp all transit corridors by 2030 and to better connect Asia to Europe.
“Evolving multimodal corridors, such as the Middle Corridor, will be bolstered to cope with the ever-growing flow of goods,” he concluded.