Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 22
By Rashid Shirinov – Trend:
Thanks to the work done in Kazakhstan to develop the transport and logistics infrastructure, the total capacity of the ports of Kazakhstan’s logistics hub in the Caspian Sea now exceeds 26 million tons of cargo per year, Kazakh Ambassador to Azerbaijan Beibit Issabayev told Trend.
The ambassador noted that Aktau sea port has been expanded: now its capacity is about 20 million tons of cargo per year, and the construction of a ferry complex in Kuryk port with a capacity of more than 7 million tons per year has recently been completed.
"In addition, in recent years, Kazakhstan has done tremendous work on the construction and renovation of railways from the border of China to the Caspian Sea with a total length of more than 2,000 kilometers," Issabayev said.
Moreover, the construction of the Western Europe-Western China transcontinental six-lane highway with a length of more than 2,700 kilometers was completed last year.
The diplomat also noted the work carried out in Azerbaijan to modernize the transport and logistics infrastructure.
"The ongoing modernization of the new Baku International Sea Trade Port will undoubtedly increase transit between our countries," Issabayev said.
The ambassador added that the commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway last year significantly expanded the transit transport corridor connecting Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
"Given the significant growth of transit traffic in recent years, I consider it justified and timely to create the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) in 2014," Issabayev said.
The diplomat noted that in the framework of TITR, an effective tariff policy has been built and unified cargo transportation technologies have been introduced over the past years.
"In general, a solid base in the transit and transport sector was formed between our countries, providing Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan the opportunity to become a transit hub for cargo transportation between Europe and Asia," Issabayev added.
TITR is an international transport corridor connecting China with European countries. The TITR Coordination Committee includes railway, sea and port administrations, as well as logistics companies of 8 countries: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Georgia, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland and Romania.
By 2020, it is planned to reach cargo transportation volume of 7-8 million tons through TITR.
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