ASTANA (TCA) — The favorable location of Chinese port city of Lianyungang and its good rail and maritime communication with large Chinese ports and cities assist in Kazakhstan’s integration with international logistics chains, Kanat Alpysbayev, head of Kazakhstan’s national railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, said on November 16 at the international forum “Creation of an economic corridor of New Eurasian Continental Bridge” held in China’s Lianyungang, the company’s press service reported.
Alpysbayev called Lianyungang “the eastern gate of the New Eurasian Continental Bridge” and “the intersection of on-ground and maritime Silk Road,” and emphasized the role of the Kazakh-Chinese terminal in the port of Lianyungang in the creation of China-Europe transcontinental corridor.
Implementation of projects planned by Kazakhstan’s state program Nurly Zhol and China’s One Belt – One Road will increase transit shipments along China-Europe route up to two million containers by 2020.
“Our goal is to create a Eurasian multimodal transcontinental bridge for cargo transit from Asia to Europe along three routes: China-Europe-China, China-Caucasus-Turkey, and Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran,” Alpysbayev said.
“Kazakhstan is the first country located on the route of the Silk Road Economic Belt, and is the main link connecting Europe and China,” he added.
The head of the Kazakh railway company also had talks with the mayor of Lianyungang. They discussed increasing cargo shipments along the route Lianyungang – Dry Port at Khorgos-Eastern Gate special economic zone (on the Kazakh-Chinese border) and establishment of an SCO logistics zone in the port of Lianyungang.
