Growth of Railway Transit from China through Kazakhstan: Acceleration and Digitalization of Procedures

        According to the results of the first ten months of 2025, there has been a positive trend in freight railway transit from the People’s Republic of China through the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, Europe, and Central Asia.

       During this period, the volume of transit cargo transported by rail from China amounted to 11.04 million tons, which is 11% (1.11 million tons) more than in the same period of 2024 (9.93 million tons).

       The growth of transit traffic confirms Kazakhstan’s increasing role as a key transport and logistics hub and underscores the importance of rail transport in ensuring the sustainability of international supply chains.

       To enhance transparency and accelerate cargo clearance procedures, the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, together with NC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy JSC, has been implementing a set of digitalization measures.

      Since December 2023, a pilot project on railway transit automation has been launched, providing for the automatic submission and issuance of transit declarations for goods moving along the China–Central Asia and China–Europe routes.

      Within the framework of the pilot project, 2.5 million tons of cargo were cleared during the first ten months of 2025. The project aims to ensure transparency, accelerate and simplify customs procedures, and optimize train traffic along transit corridors.

       As a result, the processing time for a single container train has been reduced from three hours to thirty minutes.