ASTANA, Kazakhstan, March 26. About 68,000 container trains have been sent from China through Kazakhstan over the past 10 years since the formation of the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative (since 2013), said the Minister of Transport of Kazakhstan, Marat Karabayev, Trend reports.
He made the remark during the ceremony of departure of the anniversary 150th container train "Tianshan" on the route "China-EU" in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
"Over the 10 years of the formation of the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative (since 2013), about 85,000 container trains were sent from China in a western direction, of which 80 percent passed through Kazakhstan," he said.
In addition to this, the Kazakh delegation led by the Minister of Transport, Marat Karabayev, visited a number of transport infrastructure facilities in the city of Urumqi, including the International Dry Port, the Express Delivery Center (Jitu Express), the "China-Europe" Railway Express Hub, and the Xinjiang Trade and Logistics Corporation office.
During a visit to the aforementioned areas, the parties reached an agreement on plans to organize collaborative investment projects to stimulate and improve logistics infrastructure.
Meanwhile, China became Kazakhstan's largest trading partner in 2023. The trade turnover between Kazakhstan and China was $31.4 billion in 2023. The volume of trade turnover increased by 30 percent from the same period in 2022 ($24.2 billion).
At the same time, in terms of trade turnover, exports to China during the aforementioned period totaled $14.7 billion, 14.7 percent greater than from January to December 2022 ($13 billion).
In addition, imports from China surged by 50.5 percent from January to December 2023, totaling $16.7 billion. In 2022, imports totaled $11.1 billion.