Kazakhstan
CAREC in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan has participated in the CAREC Program since 1997, embracing a vision of cooperation with its neighbors to achieve a new era of development and prosperity.
As a founding member of CAREC, Kazakhstan is working with other member countries to overcome barriers to growth and connectivity, and to place the region at the heart of Eurasia’s trade and commerce as global markets increasingly integrate.
Kazakhstan’s first contribution to regional cooperation involved one of the CAREC Program’s earliest initiatives. In 2000, the program began to rebuild the road between the commercial city of Almaty and the Kyrgyz Republic capital of Bishkek.
The route became an integral part of CAREC Corridor 1, one of the six CAREC corridors in the current version of the Silk Road, which stretches from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to Azerbaijan, in the Caucasus, and farther west to Europe; and from south Kazakhstan to the ports of Pakistan.
Key Projects
As of December 2017, more than $8.55 billion has been invested for 27 projects through the CAREC Program that have improved transport, trade, and energy infrastructure in Kazakhstan. More importantly, these projects support better integration among CAREC countries and aim to harness each country’s vast natural and human resources.
Kazakhstan’s critical role in transport is reinforced by the fact that four of the six CAREC corridors pass through its territory. The most vital of these are CAREC Corridor 1, an important cargo-transit route from the PRC, through the Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan, to the Russian Federation and then Europe; and CAREC Corridor 2, an east-west conduit linking Kazakhstan with the PRC and the Russian Federation, and with the Caucasus and points beyond.
With its strategic location, and abundant resources in a territory bigger than Western Europe, Kazakhstan is in a strong position to benefit from the growing international trade along the new Silk Road network, which is being built by the CAREC Program.