Kazakhstan to expedite truck clearance at checkpoints on border with China

ALMATY. March 14 (Interfax) - Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov has ordered that legislative amendments be drafted within three days to remove artificial barriers and expedite truck clearance at checkpoints on the border with China, the government's press service said on Tuesday.

A government meeting chaired by Smailov addressed measures towards expediting truck clearance at checkpoints on the Kazakh-Chinese border.

"The prime minister ordered that legislative amendments be drafted within three days to remove artificial barriers to rapidly rid of 'the bottleneck' on the border and increase daily traffic to roughly 1,000 vehicles," the press service said.

A number of factors, including administrative barriers, prevent checkpoints from running at full capacity, as no more than 100 trucks are cleared per day. That has a negative effect on investment projects, which need equipment and component parts, and slows down the national economic development in general.

According to the government, there is a long line of trucks with commercial cargo awaiting their turn to pass through the Nur Zholy checkpoint. This is due in particular to the increased cargo flow amid China's lifting of Covid-19 restrictions on transport.

"All of these obstacles need to be removed today or tomorrow. If there is a need to clear a thousand vehicles at the checkpoint, it must be done. Businesses are asking us for help. People say their cargo is stranded, and they can do nothing," the press service quoted Smailov as saying.

Respective agencies have been tasked with providing information about those responsible for the occurrence of downtime and elaborating measures for further enlargement of the border checkpoints' capacity.