Azerbaijan, US mull railway cooperation
By Ayya Lmahamad
The US is interested in cooperating with Azerbaijan Railways and attracting new companies in railway infrastructure, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Michael Dickerson said during the meeting with Azerbaijan’s Railways Chairman Javid Gurbanov on March 10.
During the meeting, Azerbaijan’s Railways Chairman briefed the participants on the importance of infrastructure projects, reforms and international transport corridors implemented by the Railways.
Gurbanov emphasized that the active participation in important projects such as the East-West, North-South and North-West transport corridors, makes Azerbaijan one of the reliable transport and logistics centers of Eurasia.
It was noted that the North-South corridor, aimed at reducing the time of goods delivery from India to Russia, Northern and Western Europe, requires extensive use of Azerbaijan’s favourable transit opportunities.
Touching upon the activities of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, Gurbanov noted that the preferential tariffs are applied for more than 10 types of cargoes on 28 routes transported by rail cars. In addition, he stated that a single price and technology apply to container and wagon transportation.
Moreover, it was noted that work is underway to make full use of the potential of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is the shortest route connecting Europe and Asia. In 2021, for the first time transportation of export cargo through the BTK was launched.
Additionally, other prospects for mutual cooperation were discussed at the meeting.
It should be noted that the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $660.8 million in 2020, with export amounting to $24.9 million and import to $635.9 million. In addition, trade turnover amounted to $48.4 million in January 2021.
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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad
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