Kazakhstan is ready to cooperate with its neighbours in the development of the “North-South” international transport corridor.
President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made this statement in his speech at the plenary session of the Boao Asia Forum (BAF), held annually in China’s Hainan province, Trend reported on Thursday.
“It is of great importance that we step up our efforts to develop both existing and new transport routes. This includes the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, or the Middle Corridor, which most effectively secures supply chains between Asia and Europe. Last year, the volume of cargo traffic on this route doubled to 3 million tonnes. We expect this figure to reach 10 million tonnes in the coming years. At the same time, Kazakhstan is ready to cooperate with its neighbours in the development of the North-South corridor.”
Tokayev said that the expansion of transit and transport cooperation between Asian countries is of strategic importance.
It should be noted that the Central Corridor connects the container rail freight transport networks of China and the European Union countries through the countries of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Turkey and Eastern Europe.
The multilateral multimodal transport infrastructure connects ferry terminals in the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea with the railway systems of China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Ukraine and Poland.
The central corridor facilitates increasing cargo traffic from China to Turkey and Europe.
A train travelling along this corridor can deliver cargo from China to Europe in 20-25 days on average, which is one of the most important advantages of this transport corridor.
It should be noted that the foundation of the North-South transport corridor was laid on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement signed between Russia, Iran and India on 12 September 2000.
A total of 13 countries (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Armenia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkey and Ukraine) have ratified this agreement.
