BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 12. Recently, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye have come to an agreement on the use of a single tariff in the framework of transportation by the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is good for improving efficiency of this segment of the Trans-Caspian Transport Route (TITR - Middle Corridor), Doctor of Philosophy in Economics Ilgar Velizade told Trend.
According to him, it is important for Azerbaijan to implement the concept of the Middle Corridor, which provides for the implementation of a growing volume of cargo transportation from China to Europe and in the opposite direction through the states of the route.
According to the analyst, in this regard, the Astana International Forum is an important platform for dialogue between various participants, including both large multinational companies and regional political participants.
"On the other hand, we know about the growing interest of participants from Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Europe as a whole in this route. Therefore, the coordinated actions of the parties to increase the efficiency of this route contribute both to increasing the transport potential of the transit potential and to activating economic ties between the states that link this route," Velizade said.
In addition, he noted that the forum in Astana has become an important condition not only for improving the efficiency of the Trans-Caspian Transport Route but also for improving the efficiency of interregional and interstate cooperation in solving the urgent tasks of today.
"Of course, we need to consider not only the transport part but also the energy part, the formation of a large trans-regional energy corridor. In fact, its formation has already begun. This trans-regional energy corridor provides for the participation of the states of Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and Near Asia with access to the countries of south-eastern Europe," he added.
According to Velizade, this corridor is largely based on the infrastructure that was created in Azerbaijan or with the help of Azerbaijan in the region over the past decades. Thus, he noted that such projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Southern Gas Corridor form the basis of this infrastructure.
"Today it is difficult to discuss in detail the issues of creating an energy corridor since all these projects today are a link between various participants. They determine the vector of development of economic trends in our region. Therefore, the Astana Forum has become a good condition for a substantive discussion of this broad perspective," he said.