Kazakhstan to monitor rail freight to combat illicit trafficking

Kazakhstan’s government plans to enhance its oversight of motor and rail freight. To strengthen this control, the country’s cabinet has designated the Institute of Space Equipment and Technologies as the national operator for that monitoring starting from November 23, according to a cabinet decree.

As the press service of the Digital Ministry informed Kursiv.media, authorities plan to use tracking tags to monitor shipments. The new monitoring system has been developed to combat illicit trafficking and increase the transparency of commodity turnover in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), comprised of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. The agency has not clarified who will have access to this data, though.

«The Institute of Space Equipment and Technologies will interact with authorized agencies and operators in other EEU member states. Although the operator has been responsible only for motor freight since 2020, it will now also have the right to monitor rail freight.»

To implement the tracking tags agreement signed by the EEU member states and ratified in March 2023, the institute has developed a new information system called Transit. This system tracks the whereabouts of shipments using tracking tags and can detect issues such as rope breakage, loss of signal or deviations from the route.

Tracking tags will be used to monitor cargo shipped under customs transit, export or mutual trade. The main goal of the new system is to enhance control over commodity turnover in the EEU, combat illicit trafficking and false transit, and boost tax revenue to the state budget.