Kazakhstan has no access to the sea, but has a favorable geographic location. The main land routes between Europe and Asia pass through the territory of our country.

Kazakhstan possesses the necessary transport and communications network to be an important part of a transcontinental Asia - Europe bridge. The country already has a rather well-developed network of important transit routes that pass through Kazakhstan connecting the major destinations: through Russia to Europe and the Baltic States, to China, to the countries of Central Asia, to the Black Sea, the Caucasus, and further to Turkey and the Persian Gulf.

The present day transit (about U.S. dollars 800 million annually) pales in comparison with the transit potential of Kazakhstan, which is estimated at more than two billion U.S. dollars a year.

In accordance with the tasks set by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan is implementing a number of large national infrastructural projects. These projects should increase the volume of transit through Kazakhstan twofold by 2020. By 2050 this figure is expected to increase 10 times.

So far the transit cargo that flows through the territory of Kazakhstan is mostly regional. The main directions are between Asia and Russia, and Central Asia and China. The transit potential between the economically advanced countries of East Asia, Russia and Europe is yet to be fully developed.

Another important dimension of the ancient Silk Road was the North-South trade that enabled the civilizations of South Asia to participate in trade with other parts of the Eurasian continent. In the contemporary world this dimension can also play an important role, especially if the current tensions centering on Afghanistan are successfully relieved.

That is why Kazakhstan works on reviving its section of the ancient Silk Road by rebuilding the international transit corridor “Western Europe – Western China”.