SPG's representative office in Kazakhstan opens in Almaty on April 12. [Photo/WeChat account: Shandong-Port]

Shandong Port Group's (SPG) representative office in Kazakhstan opened in Almaty on April 12.

Over the past 10 years, China and Kazakhstan have successfully carried out cooperation in production capacity, economy and trade, as well as people-to-people and cultural exchanges. Kazakhstan has also become an important pilot and demonstration area for the Belt and Road Initiative.

In 2022, the trade volume between the two countries reached $24.15 billion, a year-on-year increase of 34.1 percent. China has become Kazakhstan's second largest trading partner, its largest exporter, and its second largest importer.

As the most economical and convenient estuary for Kazakhstan to connect with the Asia-Pacific region, SPG focuses on the marine-land linkage. Currently, it has opened more than 330 shipping routes and operated 83 trains. In 2022, its cargo throughput exceeded 1.6 billion tons and its container volume exceeded 37 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), ranking first and third respectively in the world.

SPG has always been committed to multi-modal transport connecting Europe and Asia. It has opened several transit trains in Qingdao and Khorgos, which only take 10 to 15 days to arrive in Almaty, which is nearly 30 days less compared to sea transport.

SPG plans to establish a regular communication and liaison mechanism, promote information exchanges and resource sharing, improve traffic efficiency, reduce logistics costs, as well as create a more convenient, economic, and efficient logistics channel for Kazakhstan's cargo turnover.

It will deepen cooperation with local enterprises in logistics, commerce, finance, and other fields to make greater contributions to promoting economic and trade exchanges between the two countries.

SPG is the world's largest port conglomerate in terms of cargo capacity. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]