Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 8
By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend:
The Caspian littoral states have made a decision to establish a unified regime for the state control of ships in ports by analogy with the Black and Mediterranean seas, the Ministry of Investment and Development of Kazakhstan said in a message on Jan.8.
In this regard, the Kazakh ministry together with the relevant agencies of other countries, is working to harmonize the provisions on the procedure for port control.
The ministry notes that a unified approach will improve the technical safety of vessels and exclude the exploitation of sub-standard vessels in the region. This, in turn, will help to minimize the number of sea accidents, improve the safety of life, the health of crew members and passengers, and ensure the safety of vehicles and cargo.
Furthermore, the number of inspections of vessels that are in good technical condition will be reduced, and the efficiency of the use of resources for inspecting transport that is potentially dangerous from the point of view of safety of maritime navigation will increase.
Currently, about 1,600 vessels are operating in the Caspian Sea, 320 of them operate under the flag of Kazakhstan, while in 2017 Kazakhstan's ports recorded about 2,000 arrivals.
The Caspian Sea states are Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran. The longest coastline is Kazakhstan's - more than 2,300 hundred kilometers, the Russian - just under 1700. And the largest city on the coast is the capital of Azerbaijan Baku with more than 2 million people.