BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 20. On the initiative of the European Commission, Global Gateway investors Forum on sustainable transport connections between Europe & Central Asia will be held in Brussels on January 29-30, during which projects on Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR, or Middle Corridor) will be considered, the Secretary General of the Association of Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR or Middle Corridor) Gaidar Abdikerimov told Trend.
The Brussels Forum aims to contribute to the long-term goal of making the TITR a multimodal, modern, competitive, sustainable, predictable, smart and fast route connecting Europe and Central Asia. This event intends to put into practice the political commitment of the EU and Central Asian countries to strengthen their ties in order to achieve tangible results of the TITR development.
The Investment Forum is the next step following the EU-commissioned study on sustainable transport corridors between the EU and Central Asia in 2023. The event aims to launch the process of realizing and coordinating investments along the TITR by implementing concrete actions identified in the studies, in particular by attracting investors to projects with specific and realistic timelines and financial commitments.
Individual panels are scheduled on multimodal transportation, customs issues and market liberalization, harmonization of standards, work on the Black Sea and Caspian Sea infrastructure, investment opportunities for the short and medium term, and designing a coordination mechanism.
The forum will be attended by high-level representatives from Central Asian countries, EU Member States, TITR partner countries, EU institutions, international and bilateral financial institutions, as well as representatives of the private sector and members of civil society.
To note, the Global Gateway is a European strategy for the development of smart, clean and secure connectors in the digital, energy and transportation sectors, and is fully aligned with the UN's 2030 Climate Agenda.
"I consider it very important that reputable IFIs such as the World Bank, EBRD, ADB, OECD and others conducted several major studies on TITR in 2023. The attention of such institutions means the importance and significance of the corridor and in general the region as a whole for the world economy," Abdikerimov noted.
He reminded about the availability of a roadmap for the development of TITR with a previously planned total investment of about six billion euros.
"Within the framework of this roadmap, some projects have already started and are underway, such as the construction of additional railroad tracks on the Dostyk-Aktogay-Moyinty section, Almaty bypass railroad, container hub in the port of Aktau, construction of the second phase of the port of Baku in Alat, modernization of the railway section Alat-Boyuk-Kasik, expansion of throughput capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad, construction of a transshipment hub on the section Tbilisi-Makhinjauri, construction of a container terminal in the port of Poti," the Secretary General of the TITR Association informed.
According to him, great progress has also been made in the works on automation and digitalization of TITR, there are a number of solutions for the application of electronic transport documents, and this important work continues.
Meanwhile, the idea of creating TITR appeared in 2013, and the TITR Association was established in 2016 in order to implement this most important international transportation project.
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