Baku, Azerbaijan, April 11
By Fakhri Vakilov – Trend:
Chinese Eximbank provided a preferential loan to Kazakhstan in the amount of not more than 2.062 billion yuan ($306,995,995), a remuneration of 2 percent per annum, Trend reports with reference to Forbes.kz.
The loan repayment period is 20 years. Within the first five years only interest rate will be paid.
As part of the China’s loan, it is planned to carry out modernization and technical equipping of 9 vehicle and 1st railway checkpoints.
On Thursday, April 11, Deputies of the Senate of Kazakhstan adopted a law ratifying the framework agreement between the governments of Kazakhstan and China on granting a soft loan at a plenary session.
The law is adopted by the Parliament and is sent for signature to the president.
“The implementation of the project is planned at the end of this year and it’s completion in 2022,” First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Minister Alikhan Smailov said, speaking to deputies.
Smailov noted that the existing infrastructure of checkpoints on the Kazakh section of the external border of the EEU does not allow to implement accelerated passage of the increasing flow.
“An example is the current situation on the Kazakh-Uzbek border. There is a daily accumulation of 70 to 300 vehicles in front of Kazakh check points. Carriers stand in queues for up to 3 days,” he said.
To solve the problem, the Ministry of Finance has already developed the Concept of the “Reference Checkpoint”, which implies the arrangement of the points by the mandatory physical separation of traffic flows (without crossing the lines of movement).
Unified end-to-end automated technical control corridors will also be installed for non-stop movement of vehicles.
“Modernization of checkpoints along the entire perimeter of the external border of the EEU, as well as automation of the entire cycle of goods movement will improve customs administration, infrastructure of checkpoints, minimize corruption risks, which in general will positively affect the financial costs of traders and the country’s ratings,” Smailov emphasized.
As a result of the reconstruction, the capacity of these points will increase 12 times: if there are 450 vehicles per day, it will reach 5,500. The transit time should be reduced from one hour to 25 minutes.
($1-6.72 yuan on April 11)
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