Competition for Kazakh Railways (KTZ) is coming. Kazakhstan is likely to allow private rail freight carriers on its network in the near future.
A rail development plan of the Kazakh transport ministry includes private rail freight operators. The ministry is counting on competition to be present on the network from 2027 onwards, according to the document.
“Today, two private carriers are working on a pilot project, they are being tested. We have two years to prepare the entire legislative framework, work out all the technological processes. And after that, from 2027, private carriers will be represented on our market”, a government official is quoted as saying in Kazakh media.
Allowing private companies to compete with KTZ has long been a wish of Kazakh businesses. KTZ is performing badly in financial terms, and is raising its rail tariffs significantly to compensate. Businesses want more options to choose from.
Liberalisation efforts
Last year, there were reports that Kazakhstan was considering the privatisation of KTZ entirely. It now seems that the country has come up with a different plan, and that Kazakh Railways will remain a state-owned company.
In 2022, Kazakhstan also attempted to create a framework to liberalise the rail freight market. That effort failed. A legal frame defining how private and public carriers should interact was not completed before the deadline of the project was reached.