Speeches: Theodor Kaplan, KAZATO Secretary General, Kazakhstan

"Despite the great distances, varying from 5 to 9 thousand kilometres, road transport competes successfully with rail, especially as far as sensitive goods with high customs risk are concerned."

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by Theodor Kaplan
KAZATO Secretary General, Kazakhstan

Kazakh Experience with Road Transport to Europe

Kazakhstan, with an area of 2.7 million square kilometres and its central location in the Eurasian subcontinent, has a privileged geographical position (Slide 2). However, the Republic of Kazakhstan embarked on foreign trade development only after acquiring its independence. The radical restructuring undertaken in the country boosted this process. The centrally planned economy has been replaced by a market-oriented economy, based on diverse patterns of ownership and free competition. A high rate of foreign trade growth was a new and unprecedented challenge for the road transport industry of the Republic in terms of servicing foreign trade relations and developing international haulage.

The Union of International Road Carriers of Kazakhstan (KazATO) was established in early 1994. KazATO became a member of the International Road Transport Union (IRU, Geneva) in April 1995, and one month later, in May, Kazakhstan acceded to the International Customs Convention (TIR) and to six more European conventions and agreements in the field of international transport.

Its admission to the IRU created conditions for Kazakh road carriers to enter European and Asian transport markets and use modern technologies for customs and transport procedures. The most significant implication of its interaction with the IRU was the admission of national carriers to the TIR system.

Kazakhstan has been using the SAFETIR application for the third consecutive year (Slide 3).

A training centre, equipped with modern teaching tools, was created within KazATO. This training centre has been accredited to the IRU Academy and provides training for students under the International Road Haulage Management Programme, offering IRU Academy diplomas. Besides the Management Programme, the training centre provides training for drivers engaged in international transport operations under special programmes, including the ADR Certificate Training Programme on the carriage of dangerous goods.

The number of vehicles engaged in international carriage under the TIR System in Kazakhstan has increased - when compared with 1996 - by a factor of 7.5 and the volume of goods carried by these vehicles - by a factor of 8.6. At present, road hauliers engaged in international transport operate European vehicles such as MAN, Volvo, Mercedes, DAF, IVECO, etc. .

The geographical coverage of international transport operations has increased. During the last two years alone, Kazakhstan has entered into intergovernmental agreements on international road haulage with the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Italy and Switzerland, and has altogether concluded such agreements with 30 States.

The decrease in the volume of output in Kazakhstan in the 1990s contributed to the establishment of sustainable trade links with numerous European and Asian States, in particular with developed European countries. Despite the great distances, varying from 5 to 9 thousand kilometres, road transport competes successfully with rail, especially as far as sensitive goods with high customs risk are concerned. While the average cost of imports delivered by rail transport from Europe to Kazakhstan amounts to USD 2750 per ton, this cost in case of road transport amounts to USD 5600, i.e. twice as high.Road transport offers major advantages over other modes in terms of relatively great speed, door-to-door delivery, perfect security of goods, reduction of customs risks, etc.

The main items of import goods carried by road transport include machinery, mechanisms, equipment, in particular electronic apparatus (34.1%); consumer goods (13.9%); animal, plant and food products (12.4%) and chemicals (6.8%).

When domestic transport companies began dealing with international transport, a major share of imports from European countries was transported by road carriers of third countries, mainly Byelorussia, Ukraine, Russia and Baltic countries. As the fleet of vehicles owned by Kazakh operators increased, the share of these countries fell. At present, however, about half of the imports from European countries are carried by transport operators from third countries. This situation may not be considered satisfactory and is due to numerous causes. Thus, the competent authorities of Byelorussia grant Kazakh operators the right of transit in exchange for authorisation to carry goods from third countries to Kazakhstan. By virtue of its geographical situation, Byelorussia thus forces Kazakhstan to give away its international transport market .

In order to carry goods from third countries and deliver them to Kazakhstan, transport operators from Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine frequently disguise their operations by changing customs and transport documents on their territories. The case at hand is a breach of professional ethics and a violation of the principles of fair competition.

The vehicles of country of departure regularly carry around 20% of total imports.

Vehicles owned by Kazakh operators are used increasingly now for these services. While, in 1996 their share accounted for only 5.7%, in 2001 it increased to 25.5%, in 2002 grew up to 31.3% and this year, their share amounts to 34.5%. There was an increase of 10.3% in the transport of imports from European countries in 2002 and of 12.3% this year. The volume of these goods carried by Kazakh operators increased by 36.5% and 39.2%, respectively.

Kazakhstan is a Eurasian State. A significant part of its territory lies in Europe. Yet for the time being, the Kazakh Ministry of Transport does not participate in the work of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport, and this creates unequal conditions when compared to operators from other countries.

Despite the measures taken by the European Union to implement the TRACECA Project within the TACIS Programme for establishing a transport corridor between Europe, the Caucasus and Asia, this itinerary remains today practically inaccessible to Kazakh road carriers because of many physical and non-physical barriers. Kazakh operators transiting through the territory of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have to pay charges of USD 460 and USD 540, respectively. The Caspian port of Aktau remains inaccessible because of the poor state of certain sections of the access motorway. The same is true for the Transasian corridor: Kazakhstan - Uzbekistan - Turkmenistan - Iran - Turkey. Measures taken by the Project working group (transport and border crossing) within the UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) to remove barriers are in vain.

Under these circumstances, the only practicable corridor linking Kazakhstan to Europe remains the Eurasian corridor from Kazakhstan through Russia to Eastern, Central and Western European countries. While delivering goods along this corridor, Kazakh carriers have to cross between 5 and 7 borders. No problem exists in these countries, except Russia, where Customs Services hinder transit haulage in every possible way by delaying transport at border crossings for a long time and pressing Customs escort by commercial entities on our transport operators. This is all the more strange since Kazakh operators have not violated the rules in force on the Russian customs territory for the last three years.

The International Ministerial Conference of Landlocked Developing Countries was held in late August in Almaty under the auspices of the United Nations. We hope that the implementation of the decisions taken at that Conference will help to lift existing barriers and further increase the volume of road haulage. I would like to single out a question concerning the possibility of transit transport of goods by road vehicles from China to Europe. At present, more than 95% of Chinese goods are carried to European countries by sea.

Despite the fact that, as yet China has not acceded to the TIR Convention, Kazakh operators have carried out successful transit operations involving Chinese goods to Ukraine, Russia, Byelorussia and Baltic countries, opening TIR carnets at Customs warehouses near the Chinese border, the State Customs Committee of Russia issued Order No 888 that virtually paralysed this traffic in its entirety. According to experts, the volume of transit goods from China could rise to 500 to 600 million tons per year. This could be favoured by the accession of China to the International Customs Convention (TIR).

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