The Trans-Caspian transport route is the cheapest and most profitable corridor for freight traffic, Ruchan Kaya, strategic and political coordinator of the Istanbul-based Caspian Strategy Institute (HASEN) told Trend Feb. 17.

The transport corridor is not yet running at its full capacity, according to Kaya.

"The effective operation of the Trans-Caspian transport route will positively affect the growth of trade turnover between Europe and China,” he noted.

The full operation of this corridor will have a positive impact both on Azerbaijan’s economic growth and its members – countries of the region,” added Kaya.

The commissioning of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will accelerate cargo delivering from Turkey to the Central Asian markets via Trans-Caspian transport corridor, according to him.

The test container train on the route Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China (through the Caspian and Black Seas) departed Jan.15 from Illichivsk and arrived in China Jan. 31.

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine signed a protocol Jan. 14 on the establishment of competitive preferential tariffs for cargo transportation on the Trans-Caspian international transport route.
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