BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 17. Uzbekistan intends to open its own terminal at the Baku International Sea Trade Port, Deputy Minister of Transport of Uzbekistan Abdusamat Muminov told Trend in an exclusive interview.
"This terminal will function both for sugar transportation to Uzbekistan and for our export supplies. We want to use public-private partnership for this, so that Uzbek entrepreneurs invest in the development of the infrastructure of the port of Alat for further use," he said.
According to him, at the moment, the parties are conducting practical work on the creation of a warehouse infrastructure on the territory of the Baku port for the storage and storage of goods from Uzbekistan.
Muminov also stressed that this year, on behalf of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan needs to increase supplies through the ports of Azerbaijan and Georgia to 1.5 million tons.
"Due to the geopolitical situation in the world, it is necessary to look for alternative supply routes, and now Uzbekistan is reorienting cargo in the Azerbaijani direction, thus, developing the potential of the [Trans-Caspian International Transport Route] Middle Corridor. Currently, we are actively using the transport potential of Azerbaijan, in particular, the possibilities of the Baku International Sea Trade Port. In particular, for our imports of sugar. This year we plan to double the supply of sugar - up to 300,000 tons," the deputy minister explained.
He noted that, in 2022, the supply of raw sugar through the territory of Azerbaijan amounted to 130,000 tons.
In general, in 2022, the volume of transportation of export-import cargo of the Republic of Uzbekistan through the Azerbaijani port of Alat increased by 65 percent and amounted to more than 900,000 tons.