Perspectives of Kazakhs towards Beijing changing

Young people see China more favourably than elders, thanks to belt-and-road investments

- Markus Ziener

ALMATY (Kazakhstan) - For Ms Saltanat Maden, Khorgos - the world's largest dry port and a special economic zone that straddles Kazakhstan and China in the two neighbours' remote borderlands is a land of opportunity.

The 28-year-old, who hails from the region around Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty in the country's south-east, works on the Chinese side of the port in the free trade zone that is part of the special economic zone, 300km away from home.

She works with a Chinese trading company that sells all kinds of things, from clothes to cars, in marketing, including developing its social media campaigns. She makes significantly more money here than in Kazakhstan.

The young woman with glossy black hair and dressed in a casual beige hoodie, who enjoys attending self-defence classes in her free time, is enthusiastic about her work at the zone.

Here, at the glittering malls, including one named "King Kong", Kazakhs, some looking to be students in their 20s, come with empty suitcases and backpacks that they fill with cheap, duty-free goods up to the 20kg quota allowed.

They then return to the Kazakh side where many hand over their buys to canny traders who reward them with 5,000 Kazakh tenge (S$13.50) for the day's work, a tidy sum for a country where the minimum daily wage is around 2,800 tenge.

Other Kazakhs trade for themselves.

"Buyers come, look around, and if they are clever, they see opportunities," Ms Maden explained.

"Take fur coats, for instance. Customers notice the price difference, do a little maths, maybe make videos or advertisements and post them on social media. That is how they get inquiries. Then they come back to Khorgos, buy and resell. This way, they earn good money."

But Khorgos is more than just a collection of duty-free malls selling goods at lower prices than in Kazakhstan.