Kazakhstan seeks Chinese funding for Almaty metro expansion

Almaty Mayor Yerbolat Dossayev held talks with President of the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) Wang Chunying, as reported by the press service of the Almaty city administration. The central topic of the negotiations was funding for a bunch of Kazakhstani projects, including the expansion of the city’s metro system. Estimates by some members of parliament suggest that the required loan must be $1 billion.

At the meeting, Dossayev emphasized the importance of cooperation and expressed readiness to discuss the terms of funding. In turn, Ms. Wang confirmed the bank’s readiness to support projects in the field of road infrastructure.

China Exim Bank is a state-owned bank focused on promoting Chinese external trade, investments and international cooperation. It has representative offices and branches worldwide.

Last November, MP Sergei Ponomarev proposed borrowing $1 billion from China Exim Bank with an eight-year repayment period to accelerate construction of the Almaty metro as much as possible.

«Almaty is gridlocked. We have an appendix rather than a metro,» Ponomarev said at the time, recalling the president’s instruction to build additional metro lines.

According to him, the metro has been under construction for 30 years, but the tunnels are driven at a pace of four meters per day or 1.5 kilometers annually. Meanwhile, in neighboring Russia, this rate ranges from 20 to 30 kilometers of tunnels annually. 

The metro expansion plan features eight stations connecting the historical center of Almaty with the airport. A new line is expected to begin near the Zhibek Zholy station to ensure convenient transfers.