Turkmenistan interested in entering sea terminals of Europe, Asia
By Kamila Aliyeva
Turkmenistan needs to build an extensive transport and transit infrastructure, covering continental Eurasia with access to the sea terminals of the Black Sea and Baltic regions, South and South-East Asia, and the Middle East.
This was stated by Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov at the international forum entitled “The Great Silk Road – to new frontiers of development” in Avaza, the press service of the president reported on May 2.
“This project also implies the prospect of connecting to the transport infrastructure in the southern and eastern directions with access to such powerful economic centers as China, India, Pakistan, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region,” the head of state said.
Turkmenistan is called upon to play the role of a transcontinental economic bridge between the European, Asian-Pacific and South-Asian economic systems.
Therefore, in addition to the country's consistent integration into the world transport system, expansion of the national infrastructure along the main roads, connecting routes and nodes in the East-West and North-South directions, it is also envisaged to implement measures to ensure the maximum efficiency of transport routes, reduce the share of the transport component in the cost of final products in domestic, transit and export-import communications.
The creation of a network of transport and logistics intermodal centers is one of the expected results of the implementation of this strategy.
New transport corridors allow expanding the market of services in this area. This, in turn, requires an active marketing foreign economic policy, optimization of tariffs with the countries participating in international transport corridors and a flexible system of tariff preferences, Berdimuhamedov added.
In this regard, the development of the Turkmen navy and all relevant infrastructure is of great importance, according to the Turkmen leader. The construction of the International Seaport in the city of Turkmenbashi, which started in August 2013, is the most important component here.
The new port covers an area of about 152 hectares and includes ferry, passenger and cargo terminals. The total length of berths, which can simultaneously serve 17 ships, is more than 1800 meters.
The total capacity of the new port is 17 million tons of cargo excluding oil products.
Shipbuilding and ship repair factory "Balkan" was built on the territory of the port. This facility, which has the capacity to process 12,000 tons of steel per year, as well as construction of 4 ships and repair of 20 vessels.
It is expected that the new port in Turkmenbashi City will give impetus to the development of industrial and transport infrastructure and attraction of investments, and will contribute to growth of inflow of tourists.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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