On the afternoon of December 27, the signing ceremony of the Yiwu-Kazakhstan (Almaty) International Freight Train kicked off in Yiwu. Kazakhstan Railway Express Co., Ltd. (KRE) and Yiwu Ye’er Import and Export Co., Ltd. signed relevant documents on a video conference.

According to the cooperation agreement, the two sides will make full use of Yiwu’s advantages in location, transportation, and goods resources, and give full play to the KRE’s advantages in transport organization, customs clearance, and transshipment in order to jointly promote the transportation of international goods between Yiwu and Kazakhstan. In addition, the two sides will make every effort to solve the problems occurring in international transportation, customs clearance, payment settlement, and information exchange. In recent years, Yiwu and Kazakhstan have had frequent non-governmental economic and trade exchanges. Over 10,000 TEUs of goods are transported from Yiwu to Kazakhstan every year. The demand for large transportation capacity has laid a foundation for bilateral cooperation.

According to the chairman of Yiwu Ye’er Import and Export Co., Ltd., it is expected that the train will be launched at the end of January 2022, regularly running three trips per week, and delivering no less than 6000 TEUs throughout the year. (By Wu Fengyu, translated by Jin Haiqiong, edited by Kendra Fiddler)