On 13 April, the head of JSC NC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) Kanat Alpysbaev held talks with the general director of the Chinese Railways Lu Dongfu in Beijing.

The parties discussed the prospects for cooperation between the railway administrations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the People’s Republic of China in the framework of the “Nurly Zhol” programme and the “Economic belt of the Silk Road” initiative.

China has developed a five-year plan for the development of international container transport between China and Europe. Kazakhstan actively participates in the development of transcontinental transit traffic.

According to the results of 2016, the volume of container shipments from China to Europe amounted to 104.5 thousand TEU, which is twice as much as in 2015. By 2020, it is planned to increase the volume of container traffic to 800 thousand TEU.

Last year, the volume of transport between the RK and the PRC was over 8 million tons of cargo, which is 16.6 percent more than in 2015. In 2017, more than 10 million tonnes of cargo is planned to be transported through the railway border crossings of the two states.

K. Alpysbaev informed the meeting about the measures on reorientation of container cargo flows from the interstate point Alashankou - Dostyk transfer to Khorgos - Altynkol with processing at the dry port of the SEZ Khorgos - Eastern Gateway.

As a result of the talks, the agreements on the organisation of container trains on the China-Europe route were signed, as well as the organisation of theAstana-Altynkol high-speed passenger train (consisting of Tulpar-Talgo rail cars) from May 2017 within the framework of the international exhibition EXPO-2017 in Astana.

(Source: KTZ)