BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 1. The
America-Georgia Business Council (AGBC) and the United
States-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (USACC) will hold a
roundtable with World Bank Regional Director Rolande Pryce on the
Middle Corridor and regional connectivity.


“The discussion will examine the Middle Corridor's growing
importance as a trade and transportation route connecting Central
Asia, the South Caucasus, Türkiye, and Europe. It will also explore
opportunities to strengthen regional connectivity, expand trade and
investment, and advance economic cooperation among countries along
the corridor,” the USACC said.


The World Bank believes that improvements to strengthen the
Middle Corridor will help economies to flourish by boosting trade,
creating jobs, and spurring entrepreneurship.


“A combination of investments and efficiency measures can reduce
travel times along the corridor by half and triple trade flows by
2030,” said the Bank in its 2024 report.


Azerbaijan is actively cooperating with partner countries along
the Middle Corridor to strengthen transport connectivity, optimize
border-crossing procedures and expand digital information exchange.
The Baku International Sea Trade Port, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars
railway, the Alat Free Economic Zone and new logistics centers are
significantly enhancing the competitiveness of the route.







In particular, the Baku Port is currently being expanded to
increase its cargo handling capacity from 15 million tons to 25
million tons.


One of the most significant gains from reforms along the Middle
Corridor has been the sharp reduction in freight transit times.
Shipments on the China–Europe route, which once took 38–53 days,
now reach their destination in an average of 12 days. This
improvement has been driven by the rollout of electronic permitting
and digital tools such as e-TIR and e-CMR, real-time cargo
tracking, streamlined customs and border procedures, and faster
data exchange among government agencies.


The Middle Corridor has a historic opportunity to become a key
component of the emerging architecture of Eurasian trade, as global
trade becomes increasingly flexible, diversified and
multilayered.


The route is gradually evolving beyond a simple transit route
connecting two points on the map into a broader economic ecosystem,
attracting new trade flows, investment, infrastructure projects and
logistics services along its expanding network.