Экономические науки/ 11. Логистика

Improvement of a country approach to the development of the transport and transit potential of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Tasmaganbetova S.Zh.

Doctoral student of Baltic International Academy

Riga, Latvia

The rapid development and improvement of the transport complex is one of the important factors of economic growth of the country. The proper functioning of the entire economic system, the integration of Kazakhstan into the world economy and a stable social and economic situation of the country depend upon the effective development of transport.

In this connection the transport sector of the Republic, represented by railway, motor vehicle, inland waterway, air and pipeline transport means, roads and railways, navigable waterways obtain an essential role in the implementation of inter-farm and inter-state relations.

The positive trends in the reform of the transport complex of the republic are being successfully implemented. Competitive environment has been created in order to provide transport services to speed up the integration process of Kazakhstan's transport complex into the international transport system and develop the transit potential of the country. Transport of Kazakhstan developed taking into account the formation of industrial complexes of the national economy (agro-industrial, fuel and energy, mining, construction, etc.) providing interconnection of industries and regions.

Being at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Kazakhstan has substantial transit potential by providing geographically uncontested land transit communication with Russia and Europe the to Asian countries. The attractiveness of transit potential of the Republic’s airspace has also been increased. The neighboring states with huge markets make the development of the domestic transport system perspective.

The policy tool of the globalization process of economic life internationalization is found to be the international component in the movement of transit traffic flows, stimulated by the movement of funds available for investment: direct and portfolio investment in commodity-based forms as well as financial, monetary and others. Productive foreign investment in the national economy is a significant factor in the development of import and export transit possibilities of Kazakhstan, transit potential of which is estimated at 20% of the volume of transit traffic in 330-400 billion dollars, carried out in the areas of Southeast and East Asia - Kazakhstan - Europe. Increasing the integration of the transport complex of the republic into the international transport network is the output tool of the country to the world market with high-tech and innovative products, successfully opposing the competition of foreign partners, the production weakness and turning into raw dominion in course of low-level processing of extracted raw materials and loss of competitiveness on the world market.

The accumulated experience of independent development of the CIS countries has shown the necessity of a more systematic approach to solving the problems of development of transportation industry, the formation of a common transport space and a common market of transport services.

There is an opinion of the appropriateness of development when it comes to transit potential of Kazakhstan, first of all, the development of the regional transit, and then subsequently transcontinental transit. Therefore, at the present stage it is important to make efforts to improve the performance of existing integration associations. First of all, it concerns the Eurasian Economic Union. Within a framework of this association it is advisable to advance further towards formation of a more centralized organization of transport to achieve the most optimal financial and economic conditions for transportation. For this purpose it is important to continue efforts to harmonize the principles of rating, Taxation and Customs Policy in the field of transport of the countries.

Stabilization of the economy is a prerequisite for economic growth of the Eurasian Economic Union countries which resulted in growth of interstate transportation capacity, in this context further development of transport engineering has gained special significance, cooperation management enterprises, financial and industrial groups have been established.

There is a necessity to study the rate of freight regularly, on which Kazakhstan can count. In our opinion, in this case it is appropriate to build a transit policy in two main directions:

1) Stabilization and increasing transit freight traffic that is already being transported through the territory of Kazakhstan.

2) Evaluation of the potential transit through the territory of Kazakhstan and working out of measures for its attraction.

The main task of the first direction is to ensure the environment (economic and political) for additional stable streams to Kazakhstan routes of transit goods from those countries which have currently carried out the transportation of their cargoes through Kazakhstan or used those routes in the past and the most attracted goods to Kazakhstan routes.

In this context, currently Kazakhstan can actually carry out activities to ensure sustainable flows to its highways mostly goods from Russian, China and four Central Asian republics (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan). These streams may be sufficiently stable because of certain geographical reasons.

The volume of transit traffic of these countries through the territory of Kazakhstan can be taken as a whole as the maximum possible in terms of total transit capacity. The probability that these streams will use routes through Kazakhstan, depend directly on the following:

• efforts aimed at developing of transit policy;

• bipartite and multilateral regional cooperation;

• marketing approach.

If to speak about the second direction, it deals with a rather complicated task i.e. to estimate the possibility and reality of attracting transit traffic from the countries which have alternative traditional transport links and that are not going to consider routes through the territory of Kazakhstan reasonably attractive (for example, flow of trade coming from China to Germany or between Poland and Japan, freight traffic of Asia-Pacific countries). For instance, sea freight is the traditional form of transportation from Asia-Pacific countries. Transnational shipping companies, carrying out massive investment in the construction of a highly efficient fleet and as a result, reducing the freight rates, have ensured that the average tariff for marine container transportation has become twice lower than that of railway transportation. Therefore, despite the fact that the way taken by rail is almost three times shorter conducted pricing policy makes cargo owners prefer to use the sea route.

On the whole, according to the carried out research in support of the development of transit corridors, the most important issue in the context of the second direction is the development of relations with China, Mongolia, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Europe.

Active policy of transit carriage and marketing should be applied to target audience that is why it will require a considerable effort. The volume of traffic carried by these countries should be regarded as potentially achievable in the formulation of transport and transit potential development objectives. It should be thoroughly studied and predicted. The probability that a maximum performance will be reached is very low, but in the initial stage to achieve 10 to 20 percent of this level is quite realistic.

Along with infrastructure problems transit flow through the territory of Kazakhstan faces a number of barriers, the most significant of which are unjustified delays and procedural difficulties in passing customs and border control.

The activities of all sectors of the transport complex are characterized by inadequate regulation of tariffs for transit transportation. Enterprises- natural monopolists, providing transportation services on transit, work under conditions of tough international competition which requires greater flexibility in the formation of the transit tariff policy.

Legislative base defining the legal and organizational aspects of transport has been formed in general. However, in a number of industries do not have regulations necessary for the implementation of the adopted laws. Acting laws and technical standards do not conform to international standards and need to be harmonized. Legislation regulating the activities of the transport sector should take into account the basic provisions of international law in the field of transport. In order to improve the system of normative legal provision of transport operation, the issue of elaboration and adoption of the Transport Code is being considered.

Taking into consideration the further growth of transit through the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, transit corridors should be developed that provide the through rate, delivery speed, cargo safety conditions, information support and reducing administrative barriers on the part of border and customs services preventing the movement of transit traffic. Therefore it is necessary:

♦ to provide a political solution to transit transport issues at an interstate level including the formation of single-tariff pricing for all participant-states of the transport corridor;

♦ to receive a prior consent to the coordinated development of infrastructure of transit transport corridors, comprising restoration of existing transport corridors and building of new transport infrastructure items;

♦ to improve competitiveness of transit transport corridors complying their technical and service levels with worldwide standards, including the development of motorway service facilities;

♦ to ensure prioritized, unobstructed and safe transit of goods through the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

♦ to introduce modern communication systems and information analysis of transport database system that will make it possible to collect, process and anticipate data on the volume, type of goods and as well as directions of transport movement both domestic and international traffic, also information acquisition on the whereabouts of cargo will be put into practice;

♦ to ratify bilateral international treaties that exclude double insurance;

♦ to create favorable conditions for attracting domestic and foreign investment in infrastructure development;

♦ to establish regional transport and logistics centers and terminal facilities at transportation hubs in Kazakhstan regions to provide a better international and transit traffic service;

♦ to develop combined and containerized cargo transportation.

Consequently, the complex development and implementation of activities in these areas should facilitate building of a coherent policy for the development of transit and transport potential in external sphere. In order to carry out the work within the framework of such agreements in the immediate future it is advisable to work out the most appropriate mechanisms for its functioning, methods of finance partition, clearing mechanisms and methods of collective management.

References:

1. Bekmaganbetov M. Тransport system of the Republic of Kazakhstan: current state and problems of development. - Almaty, 2005. - 446 pg

2. Еrmakov V. Kazakhstan in the modern world. - Almaty, 2007. – 208 pg.