Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Azerbaijan and Turkey will sign an agreement on creating an electronic system for preliminary information exchange on transit transport by road, the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan said on July 17.

The document will be signed in Baku on July 19 within the framework of the trilateral meeting of the heads of the customs bodies of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

The Georgian first vice-premier Dmitry Kumsishvili and Turkish minister of customs and trade Bulent Tufenkci will arrive in Azerbaijan’s capital to participate in the talks.

The sides will discuss the prospects for the development of customs cooperation within the framework of cargo transportation via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway (BTK), which is expected to further strengthen relations among the three countries and enable to supply domestically produced goods to the world markets.

The BTK railroad with peak capacity of 17 million tons of cargo per year is built on the basis of the Azerbaijani-Georgian-Turkish interstate agreement.

The final statement on strengthening trilateral relations in the customs sphere will be adopted following the results of the meeting.

Experts from the three countries are expected to discuss various issues of customs cooperation ahead of the talks.

The three countries have created a multilateral format aimed at improving political and economic ties between the countries and contributing to regional development.

The Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey format is the most functional in the region, as the cooperation is supported by huge trade, energy and transportation projects.

According to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan, for the first half-year the trade turnover with Turkey amounted to almost $1.2 billion, while with Georgia $270.35 million. Both countries are on the list of Azerbaijan’s main foreign economic partners.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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