Details added (first version posted on 18:25)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 14
Trend:
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine signed a protocol on setting competitive preferential tariffs for cargo transportation via the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.
The protocol was signed by Javid Gurbanov, head of Azerbaijani Railways CJSC, Askar Mamin, head of Kazakhstan Railways JSC, Mamuka Bakhtadze, head of Georgian Railway JSC and Oleksandr Zavgorodniy, acting chairman of board of Ukrainian Railways JSC.
The document was signed at a meeting in Baku Jan. 14.
Taleh Ziyadov, director general of the Baku International Sea Trade Port and Rauf Valiyev, head of the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company, also attended the meeting.
The document envisages setting the competitive preferential tariffs for cargo transportation via the Trans-Caspian route, carrying out comprehensive measures to facilitate the movement of trains via the route, and increasing cargo turnover.
A similar bilateral protocol was also signed separately by Azerbaijan and Georgia.
It was reported earlier that Ukraine offers shippers to use the Trans-Caspian international transport route for the transportation of goods to Central Asia bypassing Russia. In this regard, a container train will be launched from Illichivsk, Ukraine on Jan. 15 for a test journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to China, across the Caspian and Black seas.
The Trans-Caspian international transport route runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, further going to Europe.