BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 22. Director-General of Baku International Sea Trade Port (Port of Baku) in Azerbaijan Taleh Ziyadov informed this week about plans to complete work on the design of the second phase of the construction of the Port of Baku by the end of 2023, Trend reports.
Ziyadov said that after the preparation of the design, a model will be presented, according to which the development of the Port of Baku will continue.
The director-general pointed out that during the above phase, special attention will be paid to container transportation.
He stressed that a great number of containers are transshipped between China and Europe, and Azerbaijan plays the role of a hub in this process.
Currently, according to him, the Port of Baku can handle up to 100,000 containers, and after carrying out the second phase, this figure will grow to 500,000 TEU (a measure of volume in units of twenty-foot-long containers) per year.
Ziyadov also reminded that last year, the port handled 62,000 containers.
The State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan said this week that cargo transportation by all means of transport in the first quarter of this year in Azerbaijan amounted to 52.5 million tons, which is growth of 6.4 percent on annual basis.
According to the committee, about 54 percent of all cargo was transported by road during the reporting period, while 33.9 percent - by pipeline, 8.5 percent - by rail, 3.5 percent - by sea, and 0.1 percent - by air.
Meanwhile, passenger traffic in Azerbaijan exceeded 423.7 million people in the specified period, which is 22.8 percent higher than in the same period of the preceding year. Thus, most of the passengers, which is 87.1 percent, were transported by road, while 12.4 percent - by metro, and 0.5 percent - by other means of transport, the committee added.
The press service the Port of Baku noted this week that the volume of cargo handled by the port exceeded 1.52 million tons in the first quarter of 2023, thus increasing by 306,000 tons (25 percent) compared to the same period of 2022.
Meanwhile, Director of Azerbaijan’s Khazar PCB LLC Elvin Bayramov said that the company will design sea vessels of all types.
According to him, this issue is very relevant in connection with the boosting of the Baku Shipyard's potential for building ships, as well as the growth of sea freight.
The director informed about the company’s ongoing negotiations with the Baku Shipyard and other specialized structures of Azerbaijan to design the necessary vessels that comply with the company’s strategy.
Khazar PCB also expressed its readiness to conduct its activities in international markets, noting that it conducts negotiations on technical support with Russian and Kazakh shipbuilding companies, in particular, the design of ships and individual mechanisms.
Bayramov added that Khazar PCB is also ready to bring to Azerbaijan the experience of the world's leading companies in the field of shipbuilding.
Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov said this week that due to the roadmaps signed with Azerbaijan, Türkiye, and Georgia, two million tons of cargo are expected to be transported through the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) this year, with plans to increase the capacity to 10 million tons by 2025.
This week, Secretary General of the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) Asset Assavbayev, speaking at the 4th session of the Ad hoc Committee on Legal Affairs and International Cooperation in Switzerland said that initiatives of the PS IGC TRACECA, especially on digitalization of transport documents, play important role in ensuring efficiency of international cargo transportation and further development of multimodal transportation in 13 TRACECA member countries.
According to Assavbayev, the work is underway on the transition to the use of electronic transport documents in accordance with 7th point of the agenda.
The secretary general stressed readiness of the permanent secretariat for cooperation in the field of transition to the use of electronic transport documents.
TRACECA and Ad hoc Committee on Legal Affairs and International Cooperation also discussed further development of cooperation between the two organizations in areas of mutual interest.
The key topic within the exchange of views was the discussion of prospects for further cooperation, issues of sustainable development of transport, in particular rail, as well as the possibility of transportation with equal rights on the territory of the participating countries of both structures.