BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 22. Azerbaijan is working to maximize the potential of the Middle Corridor by improving infrastructure and streamlining cross-border operations, Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev said at the 5th Tbilisi Silk Road Forum, Trend reports.
"We have worked closely with our partners in Kazakhstan and especially Georgia, to whom I am very thankful, to make sure that the existing infrastructure is being utilized at its full scale," Nabiyev said. "At the same time, we focus on the ‘soft’ aspects, such as customs and state border control arrangements".
The minister highlighted significant growth in cargo volumes since 2022. "The volume of cargo moving through our territory has increased almost five times. When it comes to container traffic, in 2023 we had only one or two block trains coming from China. Last year, that number rose to nearly 280, and in the first nine months of this year, we already reached 290. By the end of this year, we expect around 400 container trains to pass through Azerbaijan – and that is not the limit".
Nabiyev also emphasized improvements in transit times. "When we started, it took nearly 53 days for a train to travel from the Chinese-Kazakh border to the ports of Poti and Batumi. Now we have managed to reduce it to 15–18 days, but that is also not the limit. Colleagues in Brussels have indicated that reducing it to nearly 14 days is feasible, and we are confident this is manageable".
He detailed recent collaborative efforts to identify and resolve bottlenecks along the route. "In August, we worked with the railways of Georgia and Kazakhstan on the corridor. We engaged a consultancy to audit the entire route – the Kazakh border, the ports of Poti and Batumi, and our Halkhalaki terminal. This allowed us to identify infrastructure and bureaucratic bottlenecks. In September, we signed a roadmap with specific action items to be implemented by 2028".
Nabiyev expressed confidence that the initiatives would significantly expand capacity. "If all the measures outlined in the roadmap are successfully implemented, the volume of cargo moving through this territory could be tripled in a very short period of time," he said.