Exporters propose to digitise and make transport plans for AIC products transparent

How to ensure the growth of export supplies from Kazakhstan to foreign markets and fulfil obligations to trade partners? This question was raised by the participants of the meeting of the headquarters on export issues held in Astana under the chairmanship of the Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Arman Shakkaliev, press service of the Ministry of Trade and Integration reports. Despite the good performance of Kazakhstan's trade with other countries in the first 9 months of 2023, exports of finished goods showed a decline. Commodity producers have great internal reserves to improve the situation, but it is necessary to solve the difficulties with transportation. "Exporters have something to carry, but nothing to carry. According to the transportation plan for November 2023, 8.5 million tonnes of cargoes were declared to be transported in the export direction, of which only 3.6 million tonnes were agreed, i.e. 4.9 million tonnes were denied to shippers. These facts clearly show why our exports are not growing at the rate they could", - Minister Arman Shakkaliyev said. In this regard, the head of the agency asked the members of the headquarters for specific cases and proposed to jointly develop measures to solve the problems. As Raimbek Batalov, Acting Chairman of the Board of "Atameken", noted, the lack of a clear plan to provide wagons negatively affects the export process. As a result, commodity producers cannot sell their products. Business representatives agreed that there is a need for a clear picture of railway capacity, so that shippers will have a better opportunity to plan their transportations efficiently. According to Satzhan Uzbekov, head of the Department of the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan, this year the transportation of goods by rail in the export direction has increased by half compared to the same period last year. Only for grain there is an increase in deliveries to China by three to four times. According to the ministry's forecasts, cargo transportation to China will show a new record in December. "A large volume of traffic is carried out, but there are restrictions on joints. This year we are fully exhausting our throughput capacity in the direction of China. At the end of the year, the volume of traffic to China will increase to 27.6 million tonnes. This is the maximum capacity of the infrastructure, which we have achieved, thanks to the relevant work", - Satzhan Uzbekov said. According to the information of Zeynulla Abdumanapov, Chairman of the National Association of Exporters "KazGrain", the volume of exports this year has decreased on the contrary. "Compared to last year, exports have decreased many times over. Since the pandemic, KTZ has accustomed us to carry cargo in containers, we have put this work in two years, but in September 2023 we restricted containerised transport of grain crops and milling products to China. Container transportations are limited by 85%. Now they can only be carried out by those stations that have paragraph 8 and 10. KTZ cuts the main transport plan by 60-70%, the only argument is that the junctions are loaded. We used to be able to regulate our shipments by submitting applications for inclusion in the additional transport plan. But today they do not co-ordinate them for us", - the head of the association shared the common problem. In turn, the representative of the Ministry of Transport said that the norms on paragraphs were provided for when there was all the necessary infrastructure at the stations, the station itself carried out cargo operations. "Now the corrective norms have been adopted, the work on paragraphs is underway. As for plans, there are rules of cargo carriage, an additional plan is agreed not to the detriment of the main one. If a consignor fulfilled the declared norm last month, they agree on a plan. Unscrupulous consignors are denied additional transportations", - Satzhan Uzbekov concluded. At the headquarters meeting, business representatives voiced several proposals to improve planning efficiency. Firstly, to automate the review of applications for carriage, so that the consignor knows why he was refused and at what section the cargo was not allowed through. Secondly, to publish KTZ's transport plans for open commodity positions, in particular, for agro-industrial complex, in the public domain on a monthly basis. This will allow commodity producers to qualitatively plan the dispatch of products. In addition, the participants of the meeting are interested in the implementation of a project to prioritise export shipments. "We are doing general work aimed at a specific result. This is not a criticism. We understand that transports should not suffer. The export headquarters itself is needed to promptly solve the issues that arise. The Ministry of Transport is ready to take the proposals into work. We will prepare issues related to cargo prioritisation together with the ministries of agriculture, industry and energy, we will work on them and show them to the Ministry of Transport in order to make appropriate changes to the rules. Another proposal is to apply penalties to those shippers who submit applications but then refuse to send cargo. In this case, they should be deprived of the opportunity to submit applications to the main transport plan for exactly the volume that was not delivered in the previous month", - Arman Shakkaliev concluded.

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