A roundtable “Kazakhstan – New Silk Way – Bridge between Europe and Asia” will be held at Atakent exhibition complex within the “Transit Kazakhstan” exhibition on 20 September 2012 in Almaty city.

At the 25th plenary session of the Foreign Investors’ Council the President of Kazakhstan announced the start of the “New Silk Way” project implementation: “Kazakhstan should revive its historic role and become the largest business transit hub of the Central Asian region, a unique bridge between Europe and Asia. It is the establishment of a single complex of world-class hubs – trade-logistics, financial-business, innovative-technological and tourist – on key transport corridors.”

Creating favourable conditions for transit and eliminating the existing physical and non-physical barriers, Kazakhstan will serve as a land bridge between East and West, opening the way for goods from western China to Europe, Russia, the Gulf countries, Central Asia and the Caucasus.

In connection with this, a roundtable will be organised with the support and participation of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Kazakhstan, JSC “National Welfare Fund “Samruk-Kazyna”, JSC “National Company “Kazakhstan Temir Zholy”, JSC “National Centre for Transport Logistics Development”, Transport-Logistics Association “KAZLOGISTICS”, as well as representatives of the largest international organisations and transport companies. The roundtable aims to promote the position of Kazakhstan in the eyes of the world as a central player of international economic and trade relations on the Eurasian mainland.

At the roundtable’s sessions the participants will discuss further issues in the field of transport-logistics. Among the topics considered will be global issues such as:

• Advantages of establishing the Customs Union for the field of transport
• The role of direct international transport
• Necessary measures for Kazakhstan’s establishment as a transport-logistics hub, interaction outlines of the business with customs and border services
• International partnership, implementation of joint projects on building transit corridors
• Intermodal solutions in transport logistics as a key factor of success

The roundtable will include a dialogue with experts, representatives of business and state bodies, customs brokers, representatives of foreign transport companies, associations of the countries of Central and Northern Europe, the Baltic States, international organisations and financial institutions.

(Source: KTZ)