According to the Ministry for Investment and Development’s Committee on Highways, 1.5 trillion tenge (US$4.2 billion) has been allocated to support domestic transport. It has allowed Kazakhstan to enter the World Economic Forum global competitiveness ranking and climb 30 positions up, reaching the 58th place in the past year in this category.
Photo: kapital.kz
“Currently, six international transport corridors are functioning on the territory of Kazakhstan, including North, South and Central corridors and TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia). In order to improve the competitiveness of these corridors, we mostly focused on development of the transport infrastructure,” explained Head of the Transit Development and Transport Logistics Department Dauren Sabitov.
He also recalled Centre-South, Centre-West and Centre-East roads, which being internal routes, partly compose the international transport corridors. Their reconstruction will contribute to the development of international transportation.
Furthermore, the Western Europe-Western China highway project will help reduce transcontinental transportation terms by 10-12 days and provide better integration of Kazakhstan into the transit networks of China, Russia and the Middle East. Another transport project the country is now participating in is the Silk Road Economic Belt, which should create a bridge between Europe and Asia.
“We work on the creation of safe and efficient transport routes. Several facilities constructed during the past years allowed us to reduce the distances in the East-West direction. For instance, the Zhezkazgan-Beineu railroad reduced the distance by more than 1,000 kilometres,” said Sabitov.
The transport infrastructure in the west of the country is also under development. In particular, the construction of the ferry complex has begun at the Kuryk sea port. The Aktau International Sea Port is going to be further expanded.
“The Aktau port is the key transport point not only for West Kazakhstan, but for the whole country. In 2015 we have completed its northern part expansion and built three cargo berths with a total capacity of 3 million tonnes. The plan is to increase the port’s capacity to 21 million tonnes,” concluded Sabitov.
