Kazakhstan is ready to place its ports on the Caspian Sea under private management
Kazakhstan is ready to place the ports of Aktau and Kuryk on the Caspian Sea under the management of private companies that will be able to ensure full utilization of their capacities, according to Minister of Transport Marat Karabayev.
«We have two key ports. We are ready to place them under the management of any private company. We even thought about selling these ports under the provision of ship-or-pay. We are ready to place our ports under private management if they ensure full utilization of their capacities,» he said during the Kazakhstan Global Investment Roundtable (Kgir2023).
The minister also recalled that the country has recently signed contracts on transportation of ammonia and hydrogen to Europe.
The country’s authorities plan to boost revenue of the transport industry from $14 billion now to $34 billion by the end of 2026. To achieve this goal, the country’s government is ready to allocate $20 billion for the modernization and construction of roads, $15 billion for railways and $5 billion for the development of aviation and port infrastructure, Karabayev noted.
«We noticed that air travel has doubled compared to 2021-2022. Foreign airlines more often land in Kazakhstan for technical reasons and then fly to Europe,” the minister said.
The official also said that several companies from Vietnam currently work in the Aktobe airport, while the government has been reviewing several initiatives.
“We are considering the aviation industry as the sphere that needs investments and we want to turn it into a special hub. We have to create special economic zones there. I’m happy to say that yesterday, the prime minister supported our idea to turn all our airports into special economic zones when it comes to cargo transportation. I mean, we are going to have special economic zones for dispatching cargo,» he said.
Karabayev also noted that Kazakhstan is going to break the record of 300 million tons of cargo transported by railways this year.
According to the official, the current capacity of railways between Kazakhstan and China is 28 million tons. That is why the country is implementing projects aimed at expanding this capacity. For instance, the modernization of two existing border crossing points at the border with China is expected to double the current cargo transport capacity. Once the construction of the third crossing point is over, it will give an additional 20 million tons in capacity. The fourth crossing point with a capacity of 25 million tons is planned to be opened within four to five years, which will increase the overall transport capacity of border crossing points to 100 million tons.
The sole shareholder of the seaport of Aktau is the state-holding Samruk Kazyna, although Kazakhstan Railways (a subsidiary of the holding) has been managing its shares since 2013. The railway company also manages another transport hub on the shore of the Caspian Sea – the port of Kuryk.
