ASTANA – E-freight, Kazakhstan’s first public-private partnership (PPP) to digitise transport, was launched as an online trial Dec. 11 in the capital. Formally known as Implementation and Adaptation of the Paperless Document Management Information System in the Field of Air Freight, the project will improve paperwork efficiency for air cargo transportation, attracting more transit through the country.
Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Minister for Investment and Development Zhenis Kassymbek (L to R). Photo credit: inform.kz.
“The new service will increase the attractiveness of the airspace of Kazakhstan for transit cargo traffic, increase the competitiveness of Kazakhstan’s air carriers and reduce the time and cost of cargo clearance,” said TransInfoTech Chairperson Sanzhar Rakhmetzhanov.
The 3.3-billion tenge (US$8.9 million) project is being executed through private investments, with no state budget funds expended. The programme is being used at all the nation’s international airports. When the PPP contract expires, ownership of the information system will be transferred to the state free of charge,
E-freight will convert approximately 20 paper documents into electronic format. On average, the system will reduce the time to process cargo air flow and handle cargo from one day to one hour. The project should also attract air cargo and transit through the country, the Civil Aviation Committee of the Ministry for Investments and Development wrote on its Facebook account.
E-freight, the 67th of the Plan of the Nation’s 100 Concrete Steps, is one of the primary projects of the country’s digitisation programme. It is being implemented under instruction from President Nursultan Nazarbayev and was one of the new enterprises and projects presented to him during the recent Industrialisation Day national teleconference.
