BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 10. The TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) International Program expects a breakthrough in 2024 on several crucial issues related to the functioning of the Europe-South Caucasus-Asia corridor, the resolution of which will provide an additional impetus for its development, permanent representative of TRACECA in Azerbaijan Rufat Bayramov told Trend.
He said that the agreement on the establishment of the TRACECA Business Council is expected to be reached by mid-2024, which will include representatives from business, government entities, freight carriers, customs, border authorities, and other participants of the cargo transportation process.
"The creation of such a council is very important as it will allow for the prompt and well-coordinated resolution of current issues and increase the efficiency of TRACECA along the entire length of this corridor," noted Bayramov.
Additionally, discussions are underway among the 14 participating countries of the program regarding the creation of the TRACECA Fund this year, with the participation of both public and private capital.
"The idea is that within the budget of this fund, priority projects of a regional nature covering several corridor participant countries will be considered and selected. Discussions are ongoing on how the decisions will be made, how the work will be financed, and who will be part of the fund's management board. These issues may be agreed upon by mid-2024," said the TRACECA representative.
The most important task of 2024, according to Bayramov, is the commencement of actual operations by the Middle Corridor Multimodal unified operator company agreed upon by Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan in November 2023 – active participants in TRACECA.
"This company has been registered in the Astana FEZ (Free Economic Zone). A business plan is being prepared for the operation of the company and the development of an optimal tariff policy. Hopefully, this unified operator will start operating in the first half of 2024 and will be able to successfully negotiate with China, whose cargo is of great interest to TRACECA," he said.
The TRACECA representative expressed satisfaction with the coordination efforts of the working groups of corridor participant countries on customs issues, CIM/SMGS (Uniform Rules Concerning the Contract for International Carriage of Goods by Rail/ Agreement on International Goods Transport by Rail), the Fund, and the Business Council, which, in his opinion, is the key to the success of the steps planned for 2024.
The TRACECA International Program has been operating since 1993 and aims to reduce the delivery time of goods from Asia to Europe and vice versa by 2-2.5 times compared to sea transport routes – to 12-14 days.