Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 5
By Azad Hasanli – Trend:
The use of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway by Czech companies will be developing, Czech Minister for Industry and Trade Tomas Huner said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
“Due to its advantageous position at the borders between the European and Asian continents, there is a growing importance of Azerbaijan as a transit country for Chinese goods traveling to Europe,” the minister said. “An example of this is the completion of the so-called 'railway Silk road' – BTK railway at the end of last year. Its use by Czech companies for the transport of goods will be developing taking into account the financial and time advantages.”
“This is perhaps the fastest possible land route between China and Europe,” he said. “We can expect its abundant use in the future for the transport of goods by Czech companies. Taking into account the potential of the whole project of the new Silk road, we can expect strengthening of Azerbaijan's importance as a transit country and as one of the independent business centers.”
The official opening ceremony of the BTK railway was held in Baku Oct. 30, 2017. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis of a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement.
The railway’s peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.