ASTANA – The Astana Times has selected articles from global media outlets covering Kazakhstan. This week’s foreign media digest highlights the country’s efforts to attract U.S. investment, new steps to digitize the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, expanding energy cooperation with South Korea, and more.
No longer a startup market: Kazakhstan makes its case to US investor The Times of Central Asia released an article on April 16 about Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s push to deepen U.S.-Kazakhstan economic ties by turning political alignment with Washington into concrete investments in energy, critical minerals, infrastructure, and digital development.
“Kazakhstan is positioning itself not as a future opportunity but as an already proven partner, highlighting over $17 billion in recent agreements with major U.S. companies and more than $60 billion in total U.S. investment, while emphasizing its role as a reliable supplier of critical minerals, a key Eurasian transit hub through the Middle Corridor, and a stable, reform-driven economy with strong legal protections for investors,” reads the article.
Kazakhstan to integrate digital systems for Middle Corridor development Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov has instructed the country’s relevant agencies to ensure the integration of digital systems with partners in Azerbaijan and Georgia to develop the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR, Middle Corridor), according to an article published by Report on April 13.
Bektenov announced this at a meeting dedicated to implementing the president’s instructions to develop the country’s transit and transport potential. “Work is underway to shorten delivery time along the TITR, introduce unified tariffs along the Altynkol – Poti/Batumi route, and integrate digital systems with partners in Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Currently, major infrastructure projects are being implemented on a railway with a total length of 3,900 kilometers,” he emphasized. South Korea to import Kazakh oil via routes bypassing Strait of Hormuz South Korea has agreed to purchase 18 million barrels of crude oil from Kazakhstan using alternative transport routes, in a calculated effort to reduce exposure to geopolitical disruption in the Middle East, reported AnewZ on April 16.
The arrangement was confirmed by Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff to the South Korean president, following high-level talks in Kazakhstan on April 8. It forms part of a broader push by Seoul to diversify both suppliers and logistics chains. The deal sits within a wider procurement framework under which South Korea has secured contracts for 273 million barrels of oil through to the end of 2026.