Paradox – more than 100 thousand new cars annually made in Kazakhstan disappear in unidentified directions.  Care-dealer centers are empty.  Police officially report they do now know how many new cars undergo registration process.

On 25 January we published an article going under the title – “Kazakh Machines-Building Industry – The Park That Does Not Exist”. In that article, we made reference to an opinion expressed by Sanzhar Bokayev, a public activist. The individual said that the best indicator of the blooming car manufacturing industry, as our bureaucrats claim, is not an official statistical report of how many cars we produced, but the report on police registration of vehicles in the names of particular citizens. 

Car Industry and Its Pains and Hiccups

Nobody in this country has opportunities to verify the statistics provided by the Association of the Kazakhstan Car Business.  Starting from 2017, Ministry of Interior closed the access to statistics about new cars.  Also, Mr. Bokayev added that our Popular Service Centers register new vehicles, but the registration data are in the open public domains. 

We said – “No way” and wrote a letter to the Administrative Police Department.  We submitted the following questions:

• quantity of new vehicles made and registered in Kazakhstan by police in 2022, with the break down by names of companies producing vehicles
• quantity of new vehicles made outside Kazakhstan, brought to Kazakhstan and registered by Kazakh police in 2022, with the break down by names of companies producing vehicles
• increase/decrease in quantity if registration of new vehicles made in Kazakhstan in the period of 2020-2022, with the break down by names of companies producing those vehicles
• increase/decrease in quantity of registration of new vehicles made outside Kazakhstan and brought here in 2020-2022, with the break down by names of companies producing those vehicles.

Chair of the Administrative Police Department Serik Tusupov answered as follows:

We were recommended to browse through the official web-site of the National Statistics Bureau. The last update on the topic that concerns us was made on 12 January 2023.  In that update, the Bureau experts made reference to the Ministry of Interior (which Ministry knows nothing) and based on that reference they shared information regarding vehicles “not older than 3 years”. Which means, they do have data regarding registration of new vehicles. 

Export or Not Export – Does Not Matter

All we got left now, is to try to guess how we are supposed to monitor the car turnover in Kazakhstan.  All we got left now is to proceed to believe that our indigenous cars-building industry is a myth, not reality.

Far more generous was our Ministry of Trade and Integration.  We approached them with an inquiry regarding exportation of Kazakh made vehicles to abroad. 

The Ministry reported that Kazakh made new vehicles are exported to 15 countries, including even Switzerland and UAE.  In 2021, Kazakhstan exported one vehicle to Switzerland and earned USD 29 thousand.  In 2020-2022, Kazakhstan exported 13 vehicles to UAE earning USD 1 million.

Most of new Kazakh made vehicles are directed to Uzbekistan, Russia and Kyrgyzstan.

From 1 January 2020 to November 2022, Kazakhstan exported new cars to the following countries:

• Uzbekistan — 15.5 thousand, totaling US 419.9 thousand
• Russia – 9.8 thousand, totaling USD 120.7 million
• Kyrgyzstan – 1,149 new vehicles totaling USD 53.2 million

In total Kazakhstan exported the following quantities of new vehicles:

• 2020 — 7,000 totaling USD 129.7 million
• 2021 году — 11.3 thousand totaling USD 195 million
• January-November 2022 — 9.2 thousand totaling USD 291.3 million

One could make a supposition that exports caused deficit of new cars in Kazakh dealing centers.  But no, we exported far more less than we made.  Which means that the majority of vehicles are supposed to be inside the country and change the picture of our statistics of vehicle registration entries.  But we do not see it, which means that either Ministry of Interior do not maintain registration process, or they simply do not want to make that data publicly available.