Minister of Trade and Integration Arman Shakkaliyev reported on the development of cross-border hubs at the Government session chaired by Olzhas Bektenov.

The Head of State set a task to form full-fledged transport and logistics hubs in Kazakhstan in Central Asia and the Caspian region. For its implementation, transport and logistics and trade centres are being created around the country on the borders with China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, the Russian Federation and on the Caspian coast. The goals, objectives and approaches to the creation and development of cross-border hubs are stipulated in the Concept for the Development of Kazakhstan's Transport and Logistics Potential until 2030. Their creation will accelerate trade interaction with border countries, increase the growth of non-resource exports by 30%, and simplify logistics procedures for businesses.

The location of the project "Industrial Trade and Logistics Complex" was chosen as an area adjacent to one of the busiest transit checkpoints: "Karasu" from the side of Kazakhstan and "Ak-Tilek" from the side of Kyrgyzstan, which are a section of the international road corridor "Western Europe - Western China".

"The complex will provide services of storage and pre-sale preparation of products, consolidation and redistribution of goods by wholesale lots. To date, a pool of potential ITLC residents is being formed. The complex will have a simplified border and vehicle and cargo registration system where goods will be moved across a new bridge, which will significantly relieve the existing checkpoints. Construction works will begin in 2025," the Minister said.

The International Centre for Industrial Cooperation "Central Asia" will become the region's largest centre for consolidation, processing and distribution of cargo flows, as well as industrial cooperation within the "North-South" corridor.

The centre will be located near the Atameken (Kazakhstan) and Gulistan (Uzbekistan) border crossing points and will consist of production sites, storage warehouses, and transport infrastructure. This will speed up cargo delivery and reduce logistics costs, reduce the number of participants in the supply chain, lower the cost of the product for the end consumer and increase the speed of deliveries.

The centre will ensure the creation of new industries, jobs, processing of agricultural and industrial products, production in the sphere of mechanical engineering and metalworking, pharmaceuticals, electrical engineering, chemical, leather and textile-garment products, including the project of Global Textile LLP for the production of finished textile products.

The establishment of ICPC will have a favourable impact on further deepening of bilateral trade and economic relations with border countries, will activate business ties between manufacturers and entrepreneurs of the two countries, and will stimulate the increase of mutual trade turnover up to $10 billion in the next 5 years.

The Eurasia Cross-Border Trade Centre will be located on the territory adjacent to the Uralsk airport. This is a hub for cargo flows with access to the cities of Orenburg, Saratov, Samara and further on to the largest federal districts of the Russian Federation and the countries of Eastern Europe. To implement the Centre, an industrial zone has been created for investment projects for the production of paints, polymer coatings, plastic packaging/containers and 3D décor panels. Implementation of the Centre will bring macroeconomic effects for the WKO: reduction of the share of total national economic costs of cargo and goods promotion in the GDP structure by 5%-10%; increase of investment attractiveness of projects on production location. The launch of the Eurasia CTC is scheduled for 2026.

"Khorgos Knot" acts as an integral element of expanding the transit potential of Kazakhstan, and is also part of the global concept of the People's Republic of China - “One Belt - One Road”, which takes into account the geographical location, infrastructure potential with access to Europe and Middle East countries.

According to Arman Shakkaliyev, the implementation of the "Khorgos Knot" project is to connect and integrate infrastructure facilities to increase exports, transit and development of industrial cooperation. It will give impetus to the development of trade and economic co-operation on the border of Kazakhstan and China.

"Caspian Knot" will be aimed at the countries of the Caspian region with a population of more than 100 million people. Practical implementation of the project is the construction of a site for storage of containers and transshipment from railway wagons to sea containers, as well as the provision of quality service for their processing. "Caspian Knot" will allow to increase the volume of transit cargoes going from China to Europe at TMTM, as well as the development of the container line “Turkmenbashi - Aktau - PRC”.

One of the projects being implemented within the framework of hub development at the Caspian hub is the project "Construction of a container hub in the sea port of Aktau". Works on the project implementation have been started. A land plot of 19 hectares has been reserved in the Aktau Seaport FEZ. An agreement has been signed with a potential investor - the port of Lianyungang Port GC LLC - to attract investment in the project. International companies PSA International (Singapore), Abu Dhabi Ports Group (UAE), Adani Group (India), Rhenus (Germany) have also expressed interest in participating in the project implementation. The project is implemented by the Ministry of Transport together with the Akimat of Mangystau region. The construction of the container hub in the port of Aktau is planned to be completed in the second quarter of 2025.

Another project giving impetus to the development and expansion of Kuryk port is ‘Construction of multifunctional marine terminal “Sarzha”. The investor is SEMURG INVEST. The project involves the construction of a general cargo terminal, a universal terminal, a liquid cargo terminal, as well as a transport and logistics centre and a production complex with a total capacity of about 10 million tonnes. Since November 2023, general cargo transshipment has been underway, with more than 73,000 tonnes of metal and fertilisers handled to date. The project completion date is 2026.

"To date, the activities and procedures for the adoption of organisational and administrative documents necessary for the establishment of hubs have been fully completed. In particular, two intergovernmental agreements have been signed with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and industrial zones have been created," Arman Shakkaliyev said.

The Minister also emphasised that the creation of production facilities together with border countries by building a system of cross-border hubs as zones of advanced development will contribute to:

• strengthening the role of the RK in the system of transcontinental and interstate economic corridors;
• growth of trade turnover between the countries and strengthening of strategic relations;
• development of industrial cooperation and transport and logistics infrastructure;
• development of export potential of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
• organisation of modern multimodal hubs for servicing international cargo flows.

#Government session #Logistics #Ministry of Trade and Integration #President's instruction #Transport