Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8
By Ali Mustafayev – Trend:
Kazakhstan is becoming a key link in one of the most ambitious world initiatives - "One belt, one road".
On March 7, the port of Amsterdam hosted a solemn ceremony of sending the first-ever freight train from the Netherlands to China, Kazakh media reported.
The train, owned by the Dutch transport and logistics company Nunner Logistics, will travel 11,000 kilometers in 16 days and deliver cargo to the city of Iwu in eastern China.
This is where Kazakhstan fits in as an important transit territory.
"The first freight train starts its journey from Amsterdam to the Chinese port city of Yiwu. Almost 3,000 kilometers of the 11,000 kilometers that this train will run, passes through Kazakhstan," Kazakhstan's ambassador to the Netherlands Magzhan Ilyasov said.
The train with 41 freight containers will deliver equipment, mineral fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, medical products, optical devices and technical equipment to China.
Amsterdam will send three freight trains weekly to Iva, and by 2020 the total number of trains annually sent from the EU to China will reach 5,000.