Kiev initiates creation of transport corridor 'Baltic sea-Black sea-Caspian sea'
By Nigar Abbasova
Ukraine has presented Azerbaijan a draft agreement on creation of international transport corridor ‘Baltic sea-Black sea-Caspian sea’.
Gennady Zubko, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of regional development, construction, housing and communal services announced about this while addressing the 11th meeting of the joint intergovernmental Azerbaijani-Ukrainian Commission on economic cooperation held in Baku.
“The large transport corridor which synchronizes several routes will have a huge importance for the strengthening of trade and economic relations. Single management body is expected to be created within the framework of the project to form a comprehensive strategy for the development of freight transportation operations in the region,” he said.
He also underlined that Ukraine and Azerbaijan are continuing transport cooperation on the “Silk Road” route mentioning that the results of the testing trip of the container train on route Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China have proved technical and technological capabilities of such transportation.
Ukraine and Azerbaijan cooperate within the framework of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) which is a part of the “Silk Road”.
The route which is designed 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.
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine decided to apply the competitive feed-in tariffs for cargo transportation via the TITR in January, 2016. Single competitive rate was introduced in the framework of the route starting from June 1, 2016 with the view to reduce the costs of international cargo transportation. The first test container train on route Shihezi (China)-Dostyk-Aktau-Alat, arrived in Baku international sea trade port on August 3, 2015.
Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Ukraine amounted to $ 92.3 million in January-May 2016 according to State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan. As much as $ 83.5 million falls to a share of import from the country.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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