Khorgos East Gate Special Economic Zone

Objective

Khorgos–East Gate’s goal is to become an effective transport, logistics, and industrial hub.

Description

The Khorgos Gateway and Dry Port occupies 129.8 hectares of land, including logistics and industrial zones, with a capacity to hold 18,000 containers. It also hosts the International Center For Boundary Cooperation (ICBC), a massive open-air mall and business district and a unique duty-free zone where Chinese and Kazakh citizens can enter visa-free for up to 30 days.

History

The project was announced by former Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in 2011, and became part of the BRI in 2013. Construction began that year, and the dry port was in operation by 2015. Initially, the project was wholly owned by Kazakhstan through Kazakhstan’s Sovereign Wealth Fund and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the state-owned national rail operator. In 2018, Chinese state-owned COSCO and Lianyungang Port Holdings took a 49% stake in the dry port, and KTZ retained 51% of the port.

Finance