Deputy Secretary General of the Turkic Council Mr. Gismet Gozalov and Porject Director Farrukh Jumayev participated in the International Conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of signing the Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for Development of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia corridor and 14th meeting of the TRACECA Intergovernmental Commission held on 5-6 December 2019 in Baku.
The official representatives of 13 TRACECA member-states and observer countries at the level of Ministers and Deputy Ministers, representatives of international organizations and financial institutions are participating in the event.
TRACECA is an internationally recognized programme aimed at strengthening of economic relations, trade and transport communication in the regions of the Black Sea basin, South Caucasus and Central Asia owing to active work based on political will and common aspirations of all member-states. More than 1 bln. tonnes of different cargos have been transported in the margins of Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Corridor (TRACECA) so far. 50% of freight transported through the corridor fell on share of hydrocarbon and 85 projects that total value amounted to 187 mln. euro have been realized with EU in the framework of TRACECA.
During the conference high representatives of TRACECA Member States emphasized that the capabilities of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) transport corridor should be expanded. They also expressed the necessity to identify tariffs and attach great importance to the issue of expanding ties among carriers and provide appropriate services cargo transportation by the participating countries for the development of the TRACECA corridor.
Deputy Secretary General of the Turkic Council Mr. Gismat Gozalov in his speech emphasized the importance of creating favorable conditions and simplifying administrative procedures to render the Trans-Caspian International East-West Middle Corridor an efficient and sustainable seamless route in East and West trade.
Mentioning the promising transport and transit potential of the Turkic Speaking States in the region, Mr. Gozalov informed about activities of Turkic Council in facilitation of transport and customs procedures among Member States. He underlined that Turkic Council by close cooperation with the Member States and relevant international and regional organizations will further continue to enhance the infrastructural and operational capabilities of the Trans Caspian corridor, and through the solid projects set the stage for making the corridor a stable, integrated, seamless and sustainable route for the transport operations in East-West axis.
On the margins of the Conference, Turkic Council delegation also had bilateral meetings with the Secretary General of International Road Union (IRU) Mr. Adrian Albu, Director of Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Institute Mr. Syed Shakeel Shah and Representative of the Islamic Development Bank Group in Azerbaijan Mr. Tamerlan Taghi, where the Parties exchanged information about existing activities in the fields of transport and logistics development and discussed the ways of further fruitful cooperation between organizations in the upcoming period.
At the end of the 14th annual meeting of IGC TRACECA, Mr.Aset Asavbayev candidate from Kazakhstan was elected as a new Secretary General of the Permanent Secretariat of the TRACECA Intergovernmental Commission and Baku Declaration has been adopted.
