First China Industrial Park to be built in Kazakhstan

URUMQI, Aug. 30  -- The world's first overseas China Industrial Park will be built in Kazakhstan, a key project of China's Silk Road economic belt initiative, according to a source close to the deal.

Covering a land area of 400 hectares in the Caspian port of Aktau, the park will be jointly invested by the Xinjiang Sanbao Industry Group, a foreign trade enterprise, and the construction investment and development company under the Urumqi Economic and Technological Development Zone (UETDZ).

Its costs will be no less than 100 million U.S. Dollars, said Gulzipa Yilas, an officer with the management committee of the export processing zone of the UETDZ.

The first-phase construction involves a land area of 100 hectares. Upon its completion, ten to fifteen competent manufacturers will be chosen to enter the park, said Yilas.

Situated in the Aktau special economic zone, the park is only three kilometers away from the Aktau Port and enjoys a variety of preferential policies in line with Kazakhstan's laws on Special Economic Zone, said the officer.

As the Aktau port is Kazakhstan's only international terminal for the transportation of dry cargo, crude oil and oil products, this park will allow China to boost its trade with the countries who share the coastline of the Caspian Sea with Kazakstan, such as Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan, and facilitate Xinjiang's local enterprises to enter the overseas market, said Yilas.