Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 24
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The current instability on the international oil and gas market and the low oil prices, protracted for a long time, set the tasks for Azerbaijan to develop other potential opportunities and sources of income to the state budget. Currently, one of such real possibilities for Azerbaijan is freight transportation.
Historically, Azerbaijan, located at the junction of Europe and Asia, is a convenient transit country for trade due to the unique geographical position. In particular, the famous Silk Route, linking East Asia with Europe, was stretching here.
But despite this, the volumes of cargo transportation through Azerbaijan and thus the income have declined for the last years. The reforms were required to develop the country's transit potential and increase the state treasury income from this sector. These reforms did not keep waiting.
The Cargo Transit Coordinating Council was established upon the decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in the country last week.
According to the decree, the newly established council will control the implementation of the single window principle while transporting transit cargo through the territory of Azerbaijan by railways, ships, marine ports and terminals. Earlier, these functions were performed by several organizations.
This will help solve the problems that have prevented to increase the transit cargo volumes through Azerbaijan and have braked the development of this sphere. This will significantly increase the attractiveness of cargo transportation through the country's territory for foreign carriers.
The single window principle, which will operate in electronic form, will simplify the activity of shippers. They will not have to apply to several departments to get any document. There will be no official circumlocution. Accordingly, this will greatly reduce the time spent on all necessary procedures and cargo transportation. This is extremely important for businessmen for whom time is always money.
Moreover, the Coordinating Council will control the transportation of transit goods through the territory of Azerbaijan by railways, ships, ports and terminals, that is, those points which will play an important role in the implementation of two large transport projects - "North-South" and "East-West "(Trans-Caspian route).
At present, Azerbaijan and Russia are negotiating the introduction of single tariffs for rail freight. The issue of financing the construction of an important part of the railway through the North-South corridor has been coordinated with Iran. Resolving these important issues, as well as the establishment of the Coordinating Council in Azerbaijan, mean that at present, the transport projects will be rapidly implemented.
If Azerbaijan successfully fulfills the tasks, the country's income from rail and sea freight will reach $1 billion a year by 2025, i.e., in 10 years. This figure can be increased even more in the future. So we can say with confidence that Azerbaijan expects a real boom in the field of transportation in the near future.
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Maksim Tsurkov is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
