Unlocking The Landlocked

DP World is looking to alter the way business is done in the world’s biggest landlocked country. Kazakhstan quite literally is at the crossroads of the New Silk Route connecting the East and West. A port, a logistics hub and a SEZ at Kazakhstan developed by DP World will make it the most significant trade corridors connecting Asia, Europe and Africa. It will be Advantage India too.

- Deepika Amirapu

This is a story that has been in the works for almost six years now when the Kazakh Premier first approached the governments in the UAE to help strengthen the trade and logistics infrastructure of the country. Developing and strengthening road and rail networks would transform Kazakhstan into an economic power house as it shortens movement of goods between the East and West by almost a month.

“A voyage that would take 42 days or more by sea would probably take just 13 days by road and rail via Kazakhstan,” said Anil Singh, former CEO & MD (Sub Continent Region), DP World. When this was established as a fact both the Kazakh government that commissioned marine and inland development and DP World that was executing it swung into action swiftly. Pacts were signed and cement, steel and equipment started moving to Aktau and Khorgos- the two border cities across the country marked for port and SEZ development.

For starters, Khorgos is on the China side of the Kazakh border and Aktau is located on the east bank of the Caspian Sea on the western side of the border. Estimates suggest that some $8 billion worth of cargo passes through this region every year. So the Silk Road, formerly known as One Belt One Road, is an ambitious plan to build a network of highways, railways and pipelines linking Asia via the Middle East to Europe and south through Africa. The economic land or “belt” takes cargo, in large part via Khorgos, through Eurasia. One the other hand, the maritime “road” links East and West via a series of ports to Africa and the Mediterranean.