(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 19. Kazakhstan and
Azerbaijan are pivotal players in the success of the Middle
Corridor, said Roman Vassilenko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
of Kazakhstan, in an exclusive interview with Trend .
"Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are pivotal players in the success of
the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, also known as the
Middle Corridor. In achieving the project's success, Kazakhstan and
Azerbaijan hold indispensable roles. It's no coincidence that these
two nations, along with Türkiye and Georgia, the core quartet of
the Middle Corridor, have been cooperating closely in recent years
to bolster this route. Notably, there have been several high-level
meetings among the foreign and transport ministers of these four
countries, both in Baku and Aktau. These meetings have yielded
crucial roadmaps aimed at smoothing out any bottlenecks along the
route," he said.
Deputy Minister Vassilenko stressed that over the past couple of
years, the volume of cargo transported along this route has
skyrocketed, more than tripling, doubling in 2022, and increasing
by 65 percent in 2023 - from roughly 840,000 tons in 2021 to 2.76
million tons in 2023. "And naturally, the current projections
suggest that this volume will continue to surge significantly over
the coming years, once again, thanks to the concerted efforts of
various states, both within and beyond the region," he added.
"I'd also like to highlight that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and
Georgia have come together to establish a joint venture named
Middle Corridor Multimodal Limited. This company is registered in
Astana, within the Astana International Financial Centre. This
collaborative venture, involving the railways of Kazakhstan,
Azerbaijan, and Georgia, aims to standardize tariff policies,
coordinate the provision of rolling stock and locomotives, and,
more broadly, facilitate seamless services along this route in our
three nations," Vassilenko explained.
Additionally, as the deputy minister noted, there's significant
collaboration underway with external partners beyond the
region.
"We're talking about China, which essentially serves as the main
sender of goods along this route, and the European Union, the
primary recipient of these goods traversing the vast expanse of
Eurasia overland. We're also working closely with the G7, which is
driving the global initiative known as the Partnership for Global
Infrastructure and Investment (PGII). We see all these major
initiatives, like China's Belt and Road Initiative, the EU's Global
Gateway program, and PGII, as complementary from the perspective of
regional countries. Their implementation is set to benefit not only
Central Asian and South Caucasian nations but also these external
players. Hence, we don't perceive them as competing forces; rather,
we see them as complementary," he added.
Regarding the Global Gateway 2024 forum held in Brussels at the
end of January, focused on developing transport corridors between
the EU and Central Asia, Vassilenko pointed out that the forum
followed up on a report presented by the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) last summer, commissioned by
the European Commission.
"The report delved into the most competitive and less
competitive, yet promising, avenues for transport infrastructure
development in Central Asia. It highlighted the 'Central
Trans-Caspian Transport Network', running through Southern
Kazakhstan, as the most robust and promising route for linking
Europe and China through Central Asia, initially via the South
Caucasus and then through Central Asia. The EBRD proposed a
two-zone approach, where along this route, starting from the Horgos
transport crossing into Kazakhstan, extending southwest to Almaty,
then through Taraz, Shymkent, Kyzylorda, Beyneu, and further to
Aktau. According to the EBRD report, transportation projects
covering all five Central Asian states are envisioned along this
500-kilometer corridor. The bank's experts estimated that around 40
measures would require 18.13 billion euros for implementation, of
which 33 measures related to 'hard infrastructure' and another 7
concerning soft infrastructure, interconnectivity, digitization of
cargo shipments, and the like. European structures, in
collaboration with Central Asia, have been working on the practical
implementation of this report to prepare for this successful forum.
European structures have pledged 10 billion euros in loans or
investments to be provided to the region's countries or companies
implementing these projects, primarily through the EBRD or the
European Investment Bank," explained Vassilenko.
As for specific agreements, the deputy minister noted that
several memoranda were signed with the EBRD and the EIB during the
forum, providing for financing or opening credit lines, including
financing projects in Kazakhstan totaling 1.5 billion euros.
"In this context, the European approach to financing projects in
Central Asia is laid out. As for conducting coordination meetings
with EU partners, we're keen on further alignment with all our
partners, both Europeans and others, considering the magnitude of
the tasks at hand necessitates coordination," Roman Vassilenko
concluded.
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