Kazakhstan’s Kuryk will be similar to Baku port
By Nigar Abbasova
Kazakhstan is currently engaged in the construction of a new Kuryk port on the Caspian shore, which will be similar to Azerbaijan's Baku International Sea Trade Port.
Gosman Amrin, deputy chairman of the State Revenue Committee of the Kazakh Finance Ministry announced that the new port, which is being built near the Aktau port, will be similar to [Azerbaijan's] Alat port.
“The Azerbaijani delegation has already visited the area and got acquainted with the construction process. The new port will be similar to Baku’s Alat port and will provide opportunities for the acceleration of freight transportation from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan,” he told reporters in Baku on June 3.
Amrin mentioned that capability of the new port will be higher in comparison to the port of Aktau. All necessary conditions for the fast and smooth transshipment of freight will be provided in the port.
The official further added that Kazakhstan has by five-six times reduced the time spent on customs inspection of cargo arriving from the Baku International Sea Trade Port in Azerbaijan's Alat settlement.
He said that if earlier the customs clearance of cargo at the Kazakh port of Aktau city took up to 10-12 hours, now the process of verification of cargo takes an average of about two hours.
"In early 2016, Kazakhstan hosted a meeting between former Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu and President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, and the parties agreed to maximally ease transit conditions," Amrin said.
"Of course, we met with our Azerbaijani colleagues, visited the Baku International Sea Trade Port in Azerbaijan's Alat settlement, got acquainted with the organization of work at this port.Then an instruction was given to create the same conditions in the Kazakh port of Aktau city. As a result, we have almost reached the standard of the Azerbaijani port in Alat settlement."
He added that this became possible through obtaining preliminary information regarding the cargo departing from the Alat port.
"As a result of joint actions we began to receive information on arriving cargo, which allowed us to carry out preliminary preparation of the necessary documents long before the cargo arrival," said Amrin.
Being located at the distance of 100 kilometers from Aktau, Kuryk port’s main objective is transportation of transit cargo from China to Iran, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey and further to Europe.
The construction process of ferry complex in Kuryk port which is considered to be a strategically important object as it will allow transporting goods to neighboring countries without unloading cars is currently underway. The new ferry terminal is expected to allow the country to export oil, polyethylene, iron ore and concentrates to world markets through Baku, Azerbaijan.
The ferry complex is due to be commissioned in December 2016. The capacity of the port is expected to reach the amount of 4 million tons of freight per year.
For now transshipment by ferries from Kazakhstan to the ports of the Caspian Sea littoral states is possible only through the port of Aktau. The Aktau terminal which is currently considered to be the main gate of Kazakhstan in the Caspian Sea implements its operations at the breaking point of its carrying capacity.
Kazakhstan plans to increase transit transportation from the current 18 million tons of cargo to 33 million tons in 2020 and to 50 million tons in 2030.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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