Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov. Interview 24KZ

According to the head of the Government, logistics should become a new “point of growth” for the country’s economy in the very near future. “The total volume of transit traffic this year increased by 21% to 30 million tons,” said Alikhan Smailov. The country has begun construction of 4 new railway lines. “Just last week we started construction of a new railway in the direction of China. This is the line “Bakhty - Ayagoz”. It will allow increasing the throughput capacity between Kazakhstan and China by almost 2 times – from 28 to 48 million tons of cargo, unloading southern checkpoints and attracting additional transit volumes,” the Prime Minister noted. Last month, work began on the Darbaza-Maktaaral project. Construction of a railway line bypassing Almaty station has begun. The construction of second tracks on the Dostyk-Moyynty section continues. “If over the past 30 years only 2.5 thousand km of railways have been built in the country, then in the next 3-4 years we will build over 1.3 thousand km,” emphasized Alikhan Smailov.

Speaking about the development of maritime transport, the Prime Minister noted that measures are being taken to increase transportation through the seaports of Aktau and Kuryk. “A container hub will be built in Aktau by 2025. A grain terminal has already been launched in the port of Kuryk. Construction of the Sarzha multifunctional terminal is also underway there,” he said. According to him, road freight transportation is also of particular importance. Today they are carried out with 42 countries along 8 transit automobile corridors. “In order to further develop road transport, work is underway to construct and reconstruct 11 thousand km of roads, including 7 thousand km within the republican network. Thanks to these and other measures, we intend to significantly increase the volume of transport services,” said Alikhan Smailov.

Along with this, joint work continues with Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey on the development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR). “Together with them we signed the corresponding road maps. Their essence is to eliminate all “bottlenecks” along this corridor, both at ports in the Caspian Sea and along railways in Azerbaijan, Georgia and, accordingly, further in Turkey. This work is now being actively carried out,” concluded the Prime Minister.