On November 22, 2023, in the port city of Qingdao (PRC), by the invitation of the Committee for the Management of the PRC-SCO Regional Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Zone, a delegation of the International Association “ Trans-Caspian International Transport Route” (hereinafter referred to as the Association TITR) took part in the “Presentation of Transit Transport potential of the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization."

The organizers of this event were the Committee for Management of the Demonstration Zone of Regional Economic and Trade Cooperation of the PRC-SCO, the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in PRC and the SCO Secretariat.

The delegation included heads of members of the TITR Association from, JSC “NC “Aktau Sea Trade Port”, LLP “Port Kuryk”, LLP “Semurg Invest”, the Executive Body of the Association TITR , as well as LLP “KTZE- Khorgos Gateway”.

The main purpose of the presentation was to fully utilize the transit and transport potential of the SCO countries and create new points of growth for cooperation to facilitate the implementation of the agreements reached by the parties at the third High-Level Forum of International Cooperation “One Belt and One Road”, held in Beijing on 17-18 October of this year with the participation of several heads of state and government.

The main focus of this event was on “the qualitative development of China-Europe container train transportation, the construction of the Trans- Caspian International Transport Corridor, accelerating the construction of new land and sea transport routes and other measures” reflected in the Keynote speech of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of the 3rd th Forum of International Cooperation “One Belt and One Road”.

At the opening ceremony of the presentation, Member of the Standing City Party Committee of Qingdao Zhang Xinzhu and Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the SCO Secretariat N. Akkoshkarov made welcoming speeches.

The forum participants included more than 250 representatives of China and 10 countries, guests from political, diplomatic, business and academic circles, as well as transport and logistics organizations of the SCO member countries.

The speakers at the plenary session were the Chairman of the Board of JSC “NC “Aktau Sea Trade Port” Abai Turikpenbaev , General Director of LLP “Port Kuryk” Serik Akhmetov and Deputy General Secretary of the Association “TITR” Saut Shynybaev , who informed the forum participants about the activities of the TITR Association and the prospects for the development of the Middle Corridor route.

In frames of this event, a “Joint Statement on Cooperation on the Development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route” was released, initiated by the companies “Shandong Port Land-Sea International Logistics Group Co., Ltd.”, “Shandong High-speed Qilu”, “Eurasian Train Operation Co., Ltd”, International Association "Trans-Caspian International Transport Route", including the ports of Caspian Sea Aktau and Kuryk, as well as the Dry Port “Khorgos Gateway” on the Kazakh-Chinese border. According to this statement, the parties will jointly contribute to improve the efficiency of China-Europe train transportation, accelerating the construction of new international multimodal land-sea corridors and improving the efficiency of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route and the use of its potential.

During the forum, the TITR delegation held a number of business meetings with representatives of transport and logistics companies in China and other foreign countries.

A day earlier, on November 21, 2023, the delegation of the TITR Association paid a technical visit to the port of Qingdao. In particular, the delegation participants got acquainted with the activities of the fully automated container terminal in the port and its long-term development plans. In addition, members of the delegation visited the production workshops of the “Shandong Port Group ”, where they were also able to get acquainted with the production process of modern port cranes of various modifications and reloading equipment, as well as discuss the possibility of their supply to the ports of the Caspian Sea.

For reference : In 2017 fully automated container terminal was launched in the large Chinese port of Qingdao. This terminal operates almost autonomously, includes 2 berths and has a coastline of 660 meters long. The port is controlled using intelligent positioning systems and laser markings. There are 45 unmanned automated guided container vehicles (L-AGVs) operating on site 24/7, the terminal is equipped with 9 computer-controlled double trolley quay cranes (STS) and 38 high-speed rail-mounted cranes (ASC). This terminal is operated only by 9 people. Compared with traditional terminals, the work efficiency in the first stage of the project is increased by 30%, labor costs are reduced by 80% . The terminal's design capacity is 1.7 million TEU/year.