BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 6. A special survey
and assessment will begin in October to identify bottlenecks along
the southern branch of the Middle Corridor, the advisor to the
chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, Emil Mammadov, said, Trend's correspondent
reports.
Mammadov made the statement at the German-Azerbaijani Strategic
Partnership and Connectivity Conference held in Baku on
Tuesday.
He noted that strengthening coordination and cooperation among
the corridor’s participants is of great importance for the current
and future development of the Middle Corridor.
According to E. Mammadov, work has been underway for quite some
time to create a “single window” system, which will allow for
offering various solutions and services to cargo owners along the
Middle Corridor.
“One of the latest initiatives in this direction has been the
establishment of a joint venture called ‘Middle Corridor
Multimodal.’ Currently, the founding members of this joint venture
are Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and China,” he noted.
According to him, the joint venture provides the Middle Corridor
participating countries with the opportunity to participate both in
the provision of transportation services and in initiatives related
to the corridor’s development.
“Coordination and joint activities within the framework of the
joint venture allow us to better showcase the opportunities of the
Middle Corridor and make the corridor more transparent. A shipper
needs to know where their cargo is and at what stage of transport
it is,” E. Mammadov said.
He emphasized that such cooperation helps resolve the problems
and challenges that shippers may face when transporting cargo along
the Middle Corridor.
The advisor to the ADY chairman also noted the role of
associations operating along the Middle Corridor in the route’s
development.
“The Middle Corridor Association (TITR) is one of the
organizations working in this direction. Another association is the
‘Eurasian Transport Route,’ established at the initiative of
‘Azerbaijan Railways.’ This route covers the southern branch of the
Middle Corridor,” he said.
Furthermore, Mammadov noted that the “Eurasian Transport Route”
covers Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and
Georgia, crossing the Caspian Sea.
“This month, in October, we are beginning to conduct a survey
along this route. This will help identify limiting factors. The
assessment will reveal what the actual problems are currently along
the southern route,” E. Mammadov emphasized.
According to him, based on the results of the assessment,
further steps and initiatives necessary for the route’s development
will be determined.
“Then we will determine what steps need to be taken and what
initiatives need to be implemented so that this route can also
reach the level of development we have currently achieved on the
Middle Corridor,” he added.
