Tashkent, Uzbekistan, June 4
By Demir Azizov- Trend:
In order to maintain Uzbekistan's economic growth at 8 percent in the medium term, the cargo transportation volume should increase on average by 9.2 percent per year, said Bakhtiyor Ergashev, coordinator of Uzbekistan's Center for Economic Research.
He made the remarks during the international conference "Transport corridor Uzbekistan - Latvia - EU states" that kicked off in Tashkent June 3.
He said cargo transportation should increase by 4.4 times and reach 6.04 billion metric tons in the coming 15 years, the share of investments in the transport sector with respect to the country's GDP should increase from 3.35 percent in 2013 to 4.6 percent in 2030.
In total, the investments in Uzbekistan's transport sector should near $47 billion by 2030, according to the estimations of the Center for Economic Research experts.
"In order to ensure the needed growth rate of cargo transportation with annual real GDP growth of 8 percent on average, $46.7 billion worth investments will be needed," Ergashev said.
According to the specialists and market participants, one of the major problems for Uzbekistan is the remoteness of transport communications and the lack of a direct way to the sea ports.
In this context, the foreign trade turnover is transited through the territory of several countries.
As a result, the cargo delivery costs are being increased. This adversely affects the competitiveness of export at the country's enterprises.
Earlier it was reported that some $10 billion will be invested in the development of Uzbekistan's transport infrastructure as part of the program of developing the infrastructure, transport and communication construction in 2015-2019.
The prospects of cooperation among the EU countries and Uzbekistan in the transportation policy were discussed on a bilateral basis and as part of the Great Silk Road project at the conference which opened in Tashkent.
In particular, the sides intend to discuss the optimization of transit cargo transportation of Central Asian countries with the EU countries through the ports of Latvia via transit through Russia and Kazakhstan.
Edited by CN