Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 11
By Kamila Aliyeva – Trend:
Stronger economic growth in Iran in the coming years is expected to stimulate crossborder trade and development of the International North-South Transport Corridor project, Maximilien Lambertson, political analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), told Trend.
The North-South Transport Corridor project, an important part of which is the construction of a railroad link between Azerbaijan and Iran, appears to be moving forward, he said.
Lambertson recalled that the first test train is reported to have crossed the Azerbaijani-Iranian border at Astara, although the railway still needs to be extended from Astara to Rasht, the largest Iranian city on the Caspian Sea.
“Once completed, a functioning Azerbaijani-Iranian rail link has the potential to significantly boost cargo flow via the North-South transport corridor, which aims to connect Russia to India through rail and sea networks,” he noted.
Transportation corridor will remove the need for some goods to pass through the Suez Canal, helping in cutting the costs and will eventually connect to the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran rail route, improving trade links across the region, according to the expert.
“The project would allow Azerbaijan to diversify its transit routes,” he added.
The expert further underlined that, the relations between Iran and Azerbaijan have improved under President Hassan Rouhani.
“Economic ties between the two should further deepen, particularly as the corridor project goes into effect. Stronger growth in Iran in the coming years – we expect the economy to expand by more than 5 percent per year in 2017-2021 – will also stimulate increased crossborder trade and investment,” he said.
The International North-South Transport Corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.
The corridor is planned to transport 6 million tons of cargo per year at the initial stage and 15-20 million tons of cargo in the future.