Azerbaijan proposed to found steering committee of Middle Corridor

Baku/20.01.23/Turan: Azerbaijan proposed to establish a steering committee of the Middle Transport Corridor connecting the countries of Asia and Europe through the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus to promote this project and increase cargo transportation.

"We need to create a kind of steering committee, a governing council, including all the countriesincluding the countries of Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, European partners, as well as the entire transport infrastructure," President Ilham Aliyev said yesterday, speaking at a panel session of the Davos Forum on the topic: "The Eurasian Middle Corridor: From the way to the highway".

According to him, all the necessary infrastructure facilities in Azerbaijan are ready to accept more cargo.

"The cargo handling capacity of our seaport will be expanded from 15 million tons to 25 million tons, the budget has already been allocated for this purpose. We expect increase in the volume of trade relations due to the complexity of transportation along traditional routes. There is already growth in the flow of goods from Central Asia, and this is just the beginning," Aliyev said.

"Since this year, Azerbaijan has resumed oil transit from Kazakhstan, and has been transiting oil from Turkmenistan for many years. Now closer cooperation is needed between all the countries involved - in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Europe, for active work on customs administration, for application of the "single window" principle and tariff policy, he said. -06B-