BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jul. 10
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
The main advantage of the North-South international transport corridor is an almost twofold reduction in time and costs of goods transportation, representative of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development told Trend.
On Nov. 13, 2019, Kazakhstan joined the agreement on the establishment of an international transport and transit corridor between the governments of Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
“Implementation of the Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan transport corridor project contributes to the development of transport routes - the Kazakhstan section of the North-South international transport corridor, the Central Trans-Asian Railway, as well as access to the ports of the Persian Gulf and, in general, the implementation of the transit potential of Kazakhstan,” the ministry official said.
The main advantage of this route is that it provides an almost two-fold reduction - time of transportation of goods drops by 1.5 times and a the transportation cost decreases by 10-15 percent compared to the traditional sea route through the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, the official said .
“In addition to the transit development, the establishment of a modern transport corridor creates opportunities Kazakhstan’s export to new markets, i.e. in direction of India, and in the future, Africa. An increase in the cargo volumes will contribute to lower transport costs for Kazakhstan exporters when entering these new markets,” the ministry representative said.
The route also creates conditions for increase in export of transport services provided by local logistics companies, which means that conditions will be created for investment in the industry increase.
“The route of development of Kazakhstan’s transit potential in the direction of Iran, the countries of the Middle East, and, in the future, India and Africa is expected,” the ministry said.
The official also noted that the goals to increase the volume of goods transported in transit through Kazakhstan, to develop ferry services between the port of Aktau and ports of other states of the Caspian basin, as well as to create a container and cargo hub in Aktau port to serve cargoes along the North-South transport and transit complex and those on Central Asia – Europe route were set before the ministry.
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