Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Ashgabat hosted an international conference on the role of transport and transit corridors on September 3-4. The conference is aimed to ensure international cooperation and sustainable development.

The event brought together representatives of over 30 countries' transport ministries and international organizations.

It was addressed byTurkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) F. Bach, Deputy Executive Secretary, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) Shun-ichi Murata, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, Secretary General of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor (TRACECA) Eduard Biryukov, Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization Sh. Alaskarov.

Azerbaijan was represented at the event by a delegation comprising of Azerbaijan's ambassador to Turkmenistan, deputy head of State Marine Administration, as well as State Customs Committee's and Azerbaijan Railways' officials.

The two-day international conference was organized by Turkmen Foreign Ministry and the Road Transport Ministry. The UN, OSCE, the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and the Intergovernmental Commission on Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) assisted in holding the conference.

As a part of the conference, a four-sided high-level meeting was held on the establishment of an Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman transport corridor.

This ambitious project aims to further enhance the mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation among the countries of Central Asia and the Middle East.

The agreement on the establishment of an international transport and transit corridor was signed by the governments of Iran, Oman, Qatar, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan at the level of foreign ministers of these countries in Ashgabat on April 25, 2011.

The new corridor will allow the Central Asian countries to be connected to the ports of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman via an optimal route in the long term. According to the observers, Russia and China can also get a way to new solvent markets. This can give the trans-regional project even more economical attractiveness.

The participating countries interested in cooperation believe that the initiative was timely and will contribute to further progress and prosperity of each of the countries in the region by expanding the trade volume and reducing the cost of transit of goods.

At the expert level, it is necessary to examine the possibilities of the prospects for cooperation in the fields of customs, transportation by vehicles, trains and ships and joint investments. The project is particularly important for Uzbekistan, which has no direct way to the sea.

Also, the Turkmen government and the IRU signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop the Euro-Asian transport relations through the territory of Turkmenistan.

Thus, Turkmenistan also joined the joint declaration on the development of Euro-Asian rail transportation and the activity of creating a unified railway law, as well as the joint statement on the future development of Euro-Asian transport relations, adopted in Geneva in February 2013.

IRU represents the interests of car carriers of Europe, America, Asia and Africa. The organization includes over 180 members from 74 countries.

Turkmenistan borders with Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan on shore, and with Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran in the Caspian Sea.

The regional transport projects have been recently increased. The massive reconstruction of the sea port of Turkmenbashi has already started. The highways are being modernized. It is expected to commission the North-South railway based on the agreement signed between Turkmenistan, Iran and Kazakhstan in 2007.

This regional project will open a way for European and Asian countries to Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. A similar opportunity will appear for the transit of goods from South and South-East Asia, from the shores of the Indian Ocean to the North and Eastern Europe - through Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Russia.