Azernews.Az

By Sara Israfilbayova

Baku hosted the second meeting of sister ports within the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) on May 22.

Azerbaijan’s Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Ramin Guluzade, speaking at the event, highlighted Azerbaijan`s transport and transit potential. “Given the country`s transit potential, large-scale transport projects are being implemented in Azerbaijan.”

The minister emphasized that currently the biggest port in the Caspian Sea is being built in Alat. “The port will become the main logistics center on the North-South, East-West routes. The establishment of the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in the Baku International Sea Trade Port area will contribute to the country`s transit potential,” he added.

Director General of the Baku International Sea Trade Port CJSC Taleh Ziyadov, in turn, said that the FTZ in Alat will start to operate in 2017.

He noted that Azerbaijan’s concept regarding the development of the Silk Road contributes to the strengthening of competitiveness and the creation of additional value of goods. “The FTZ will offer comprehensive logistics services to its residents and international clients, serv­ing as a major regional intermodal distribution hub,” he added.

The free trade zone is expected to bring up to $1 billion just in the first few years. Special tax and customs policy, which will be pursued in the territory of the free trade zone will also stipulate further development and simplification of a number of procedures.

Taking into account that many manufacturers now prefer to put the final touches onto their products at the distribution centres, such as FTZ’s nearby consumer markets, the provision of value added logistics services at the FTZ becomes an even more compelling prospect. This would not only generate signifi­cant non-oil trade for Baku Port at Alat and Azerbaijan in whole, but would establish it as a regional logistics leader with all three main services of import/export, transit shipment and logistics.

He went on to say that the number of ports connected to the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) will be increased.

Along with the Baku International Sea Trade Port, Kazakh ports of Aktau and Kuryk, as well as Turkish port of Samsun are also involved in the route, Ziyadov said.

The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, which is established to provide transport connections between the East and West of Eurasia, runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and then to Europe via Turkey and Ukraine. The route was launched with the establishment of its Coordinating Committee in October 2013.

Deputy Secretary General of the Turkic Council Ömer Kocaman, in turn, informed about the work done on Aktau, Baku and Samsun ports, and hailed the importance of these ports to the Turkic Council.

Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) is an international organization comprising some of the Turkic countries. It was founded on 3 October 2009 in Nakhchivan. The member countries are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey.

The main purposes and tasks of the Organization are strengthening mutual confidence among the Parties, maintaining peace in the region and beyond, promoting common positions on foreign policy issues, coordinating actions to combat international terrorism, separatism, extremism and trans-border crimes, promoting effective regional and bilateral cooperation in all areas of common interest, creating favorable conditions for trade and investment and others.

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