Baku, Azerbaijan, May 13
By Fakhri Vakilov- Trend:
Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), originating from the coast of East China and running through the territory of Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, as well as the territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia, provides Kazakhstan an access to European markets, a representative of the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development of Kazakhstan told Trend in an interview.
Today, Kazakhstan is actively working on the development of transcontinental transport between Europe and Asia. The trans-Caspian international transport route is the most important link in the formation of the Eurasian transport system.
Kazakhstan proposed the implementation of this project and this decision was made by Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia with the support of China in Astana in 2006. The project stimulates cargo flows to the Caspian infrastructure of Kazakhstan, forming optimal logistics and generating trade in the region.
The Coordination Committee for Development of TMTM was established to simplify administrative procedures, create a competitive environment and ensure maximum efficiency for companies from different countries, including geographically not located directly on TITR, the ministry noted.
In addition, the representative said that to date, Working Group of the TITR Association has established and applies competitive integrated rates for such goods as petroleum products, grain, coal, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, chemicals, zinc, sulfur.
It has approved integrated rates for the transportation of universal containers on fitting platforms (up to 15 meters) from China to Europe and back. A unified technology of interaction between transport companies on the transit of container trains via China-Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey was approved as well.
The geography of participants is also expanding, for example, in 2018, Turkish Railways JSC, Ukrainian Railways JSC, NMSC Kazmortransflot LLP (Kazakhstan), Anaklia Development Consortium LLC (Georgia), GRAMPET S.A. (Romania), Eastcomtrans LLP (Kazakhstan) entered as permanent and associated members of TITR.
“I can say with confidence that our infrastructure and existing logistics services will give impetus to trade relations, ensuring the loading of transport and logistics infrastructure on the Trans-Caspian route,” the representative stated.
The results of 2018 shows that transit traffic on the TITR route increased more than 13 times and amounted to 3,900 containers (2017 – 0,300 containers).
The volume of transit traffic in January-March 2019 on this route amounted to 41,300 tons of cargo, which shows an increase of 3 times over the same period last year (January-March 2018 – 14,100 tons).
The representative of the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development stressed that it is necessary to make joint efforts in the framework of the International Association to promote and increase the volume of cargo transported along the TITR route in the future.
In this regard, it seems promising to attract additional cargo flows from China and Europe to promote TITR, including through the Kazakh port of Kuryk.
Kazakhstan is also ready to take an active part in ensuring freight traffic along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway corridor, which has the ability to provide a significant increase in freight traffic from Europe to Central Asia and China, as well as in the opposite direction.
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