A parliamentary delegation from the British Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union has been briefed on the current status and development prospects of the Middle Corridor during a visit to Kazakhstan.
According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Trade and Integration, the briefing was organized by QazTrade and attended by a British parliamentary delegation led by Tan Dhesi, Chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee.
Nurlan Kulbatyrov, Director General of QazTrade, presented the development prospects of the Middle Corridor, highlighting its growing importance as a trade route not only for Kazakhstan but for Central Asia as a whole.
The delegation was also introduced to the Semurg infrastructure project at the Caspian Sea port of Kuryk.
The development of the Sarja multifunctional marine terminal cluster is aimed at creating an annual throughput capacity of up to 5 million tonnes of cargo, including container-handling capacity of up to 110,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year.
The project is expected to strengthen Kazakhstan’s Caspian transport infrastructure and increase its capacity to handle growing freight volumes along the Middle Corridor, which connects Central Asia with the South Caucasus and onward markets in Europe.
Participants were also briefed on projects being implemented across the region under the European Union’s Global Gateway initiative, which includes efforts to strengthen transport connectivity between Central Asia and Europe.