The China-Kazakhstan Logistics Cooperation Base, a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has witnessed growing business cooperation between the two nations.
Opened in 2014, the base has handled over 500,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo through direct China-Europe freight trains over the past decade.
The railway link between east China’s Lianyungang port and Kazakhstan, the world’s largest landlocked country, has helped to improve trade.
Azilkhan Bedelov from Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana has been working at the China-Kazakhstan logistics base since 2017.
“Kazakhstan is an inland nation. It has no access to the sea. Now the railway provides a good option,” said Bedelov, who is the deputy general manager of China-Kazakhstan International Logistics Company now.
The logistics base facilitates bilateral trade, allowing products from countries like South Korea and Japan to be exported to Kazakhstan, and for Kazakhstan’s products to go abroad.
“Most products are general goods and machinery equipment from China, and vehicles in transit,” said Ge Hengxue, general manager of China-Kazakhstan International Logistics Company.
Last year, a system was introduced allowing processes to be updated in real time at the cargo departure point and destination.