BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 11. Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan for Special Assignments Elchin Amirbayov said during a panel discussion at the March 1-3 Diplomatic Forum in Antalya that the Middle Corridor is gaining geopolitical and economic importance, Trend reports.
"Considering Azerbaijan's strategic location, the Middle Corridor, which essentially connects China, Europe, and Central Asia, and is also compatible with another Chinese initiative called the Belt and Road, is gaining geopolitical and economic importance," he said.
Amirbayov noted that the EBRD and the European Union recognized last year that the Middle Corridor is the most sustainable transport corridor linking Asia to Europe.
"I believe that with enhanced infrastructure capacity, optimized processes, and competitive costs, the comparative advantage of the Middle Corridor is clear," he added.
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Director for Kazakhstan Huseyin Ozkhan told Trend last week that the volume of cargo moving through the Central Trans-Caspian network could increase from 18,000 20-foot containers (TEUs) currently to 130,000 TEUs by 2040, according to estimates from the EU's Global Gateway strategy.
Additionally, it became known that the Swiss international transport and logistics company AsstrA - Associated Traffic AG analyzes the interest of the market in the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR or Middle Corridor). AsstrA director in Kazakhstan Ramilya Akhmetova told Trend. According to her, in 2023, the demand for cargo transportation along TITR has grown strongly.
"For example, in 2022, the volume of cargo transportation along the Middle Corridor was 1.6 million tons, while in 2023 this figure has increased to 2.75 million tons, which is 86 percent more compared to 2022," she said.
It also became known that increasing the capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railroad to 5 million tons may be completed by the end of April 2024. This was reported by Trend concerning the information of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC chairman Rovshan Rustamov in social networks.
"There is an ambitious goal to complete the construction of BTK with expanded capacity in April 2024. These efforts not only emphasize our commitment to promoting global trade but also strengthen Azerbaijan's role as a key link in the international transport chain," Rustamov stressed.
The Russian Ministry of Transport said that the Ministry of Transport seeks to increase the efficiency of the use of the international transport corridor North-South.
"We are talking about the elimination of limiting areas on the approaches to seaports, timely implementation of measures on the development of railways, infrastructure of inland waterways, roads, checkpoints across the state border, increasing the capacity of seaports to ensure the growth of cargo transshipment, as well as additional measures, including the development of transportation and logistics services," the ministry stressed.
In addition, it was reported that during the talks in Baku between the economy ministers of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation on March 7, two important issues were highlighted for early elaboration, and the main of them is the removal of barriers to the development of transport communication and transport corridors between the two countries.
"The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia in 2023 amounted to about $4.5 billion (17 percent growth by 2022), but we need to solve several issues on the effective functioning of transport communication. Some problematic, bottlenecks on the territories of both countries are revealed, they will be eliminated, which will allow to increase trade turnover in 2024," a source in the Azerbaijani government said.
Azerbaijani Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov said that the talks in Baku with Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov (March 7) were a good opportunity to check the clock in the development of bilateral cooperation.
"The level of trade and economic cooperation between the countries is growing, which is the result of joint productive work. All issues between us are solved openly and constructively," Jabbarov emphasized.
Among the promising areas of cooperation, he named transportation and tourism, as well as increasing interaction between businessmen, and the private sector of the two countries.
Russia's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Turkmenistan Ivan Volinkyn told Trend in an interview last week that there has been an intensification of cooperation between the transport departments of Turkmenistan and Russia, where special importance is given to their joint efforts to increase the volume of transportation on the eastern chord of the North-South international transport corridor.
"Currently, the Russian holding company Russian Railways is negotiating with Turkmen partners to increase the volume of transit by rail through the introduction of end-to-end technology of cargo flows, setting up electronic data exchange on the routes, forming competitive tariff conditions and attracting additional volumes of cargo through multilateral logistics companies," Volynkin stressed. He noted that the development of multimodal opportunities with the inclusion of the transport corridor, Turkmenistan's International Sea Port of Turkmenbashi, and the highway along the Caspian Sea, the laying of which is being considered with the participation of the Russian company Vozrozhdenie, is promising.
Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company CJSC (ASCO) has named the volume of transportation for three years of use of the flagship ferry vessel Azerbaijan of Ro-Pax type built at Baku Shipyard. During this period of operation, the vessel transported 1,154 railcars, 16,907 trucks, 3,432 cars, and 17,333 passengers.
"Taking into account the announcement by President of Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev of 2024 as the Year of Solidarity for a Green World and the fact that the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) will be held in Baku, the Caspian Sea Integrated Environmental Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Ecology of Azerbaijan with the help of ASCO's Orion 17 ship has conducted environmental monitoring in the Gulf. Based on its results, measures will be taken to clean Baku Bay," ASCO noted.
It also became known last week that 100 new electric buses will be put into operation in Baku in 2024. Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan Land Transport Agency (AYNA) Anar Rzayev said this during a conference on "Economic reforms and modern challenges in improving the business environment" held in Baku.
"In addition, this year the bus fleet will be renewed, new bicycle lanes will be created, and 150 electric cabs will be purchased," he emphasized.
In 2023, the added value created in the sphere of transportation and warehousing of Azerbaijan amounted to 7.6 billion manat ($4.4 billion), the report of Azerbaijan's cabinet of Ministers said. The added value decreased in real terms by 9.9 percent compared to the figure of 2022.
Scientific and practical conference Practice of assessment and management of risks in the field of flight safety was held on March 5, 2024, in Baku at the headquarters of the Interstate Council on Aviation and Use of Airspace (Interstate Council) with the support of Silk Way West Airlines. The conference was attended by more than 40 specialists from aviation authorities, airlines, and airports of CIS countries.
According to information received from Heydar Aliyev International Airport, the airport continued to increase passenger traffic in February this year, having served more than 471,000 passengers. This is 50.7 percent more than in the same period of last year, when 312 thousand passengers were transported.
AZAL on March 5 sold tickets to Kazakhstan at special prices, and these tickets applied to flights from April 1 to May 31 this year, excluding peak periods. When traveling to Astana, tickets were available for 169 manat ($100) one way and 338 manat ($200) round trip. For Almaty, tickets could be purchased for 239 manat ($140) one-way and 399 manat ($234.4) round-trip.
It also became known that Azerbaijan's national carrier Azerbaijan Airlines CJSC (AZAL) resume flights from Baku to Tel Aviv and back on March 19. In the first stage, the air carrier will launch three flights a week - on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, from April - and will carry out 9 flights a week.
About 575,000 visitors used the parking service at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in the first two months of 2024. At the same time, 94.2 percent of users parked their cars for a short time - up to 2 hours, with 46 percent of them taking advantage of the convenient 15-minute entry/exit to speed up the arrival and departure process.
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