ASTANA, Kazakhstan, February 2. Kazakhstan, together with the Russian, Turkmen, Indian and Iranian sides, is carrying out work on the synchronous development of the eastern route of the North-South transport corridor, said Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov, Trend reports.
He made the remark during the expanded meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in Almaty.
As the PM noted, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is located at the crossroads of East and West, North and South, which has always been a competitive advantage of this region.
"Kazakhstan attaches special importance to the development of transit and transport infrastructure. Over the past 15 years, our country has allocated more than $35 billion for these purposes. A logistics center in Lianyungang, the Khorgos dry port, the Western Europe - Western China transit highway, and a railway corridor from China to Iran have been launched. The Caspian seaports Kuryk and Aktau were modernized," Alikhan Smailov said.
Smailov also pointed out that construction of new railways Bakhty – Ayagoz, Darbaza – Maktaaral, a bypass line around the 'Almaty' station has begun, and second tracks are already being laid on the Dostyk – Moyynty section. The construction of a Kazakh terminal in Xi'an, China, has started.
"We consider it important to further increase the capacity of international corridors, logistics terminals and checkpoints of our countries. I invite all EAEU countries to implement joint projects to develop transit and transport infrastructure," the PM added.
Meanwhile, the North-South Transport Corridor was founded on an international agreement signed on September 12, 2000, by Russia, Iran, and India. This agreement was signed by Azerbaijan in 2005. The agreement has been ratified by 13 nations in total (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Armenia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Sultanate of Oman, Russia, Tajikistan, Türkiye, and Ukraine).