Baku, Azerbaijan, June 12
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Turkmenistan plans to increase cargo transit through Azerbaijan, the chief specialist for international relations of the port of Turkmenbashi Shatlik Garabegov told Trend.
He noted that, it became possible after increasing the transshipment capacity of the port of Turkmenbashi from 10 to 25 million tons of cargo per year.
"Now, the port has an opportunity to increase container transportation. We have started negotiations with all interested parties, not only shippers, but also manufacturers to increase the flow of goods. Negotiations are underway with Azerbaijan, as a large cargo flow goes from here to Europe," said Garabegov.
He noted that in order to attract cargoes, the port of Turkmenbashi is ready to provide warehouses on its territory, free of charge.
"The multimodal park of this port will provide a range of services for storage and combined processing of container cargo delivered by air, road and rail transport, ensuring their transshipment to water transport and back. Our plans include the creation of a logistics center in the port with a preferential regime on the rights of a free economic zone, where free space and a range of services for freight forwarding and transport companies will be provided, such as processing and storage of goods, maintenance of vehicles, customs, brokerage, insurance, information and other services," Garabegov said.
He added that Turkmenistan plans to attract Caspian and Central Asian countries, as well as European and Middle East states to this free economic zone (FEZ).
"We intend to expand cooperation with Azerbaijan. Possibilities are also being explored for the delivery of goods to Turkey and eventually to Europe via Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway," said Garabegov.
In early May, the ceremony of opening of the international seaport was held in the Pre-Caspian Turkmenbashi City. The cost of the project implemented by Gap Inşaat Company (Turkey) is more than $1.5 billion.
With the commissioning of the Turkmenbashi port, the great opportunities have emerged for sending goods arriving in Turkmenbashi port along the "Silk Road" route from Asia and the Pacific region, further to European countries through the ports of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. The port complex includes a common loading terminal, bulk cargo terminal, polypropylene terminal, as well as shipbuilding and ship repair docks.
The project is developed in accordance with the international Greenport standard. The annual intake capacity of the port will be 17-18 million tons. Together with the previously operating port, this figure makes up 25-26 million tons. The international ferry and passenger port can serve 300,000 passengers and 75,000 trailers per year. The container terminal has an average annual capacity of 400,000 TEU.