06.10.2015-12.10.2015 • No: 36

DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRANS-CASPIAN INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT ROUTE Nowadays, maritime routes dominate over project agreed to accept the Turkish State 5.5 million tons of cargo annually, increas- the intercontinental freight traffic between Railways to the Coordinating Committee. ing to 13.5 million tons per year by 2020. Asia and Europe. However, due to the fact Currently, the regular meeting of the work- During the meeting in Baku in January that the volume of foreign trade between ing group of the Coordination Committee 2015, the Coordination Committee reached major markets in Eurasia is expected to are attended by the heads of the JSC “NC an agreement on the adoption of measures increase by 1.5 times, from $800 billion in Temir Zholy”, the Turkish for utilizing the new Zhezkazgan-Beineu 2014 to $1.2 trillion by 2020, the Eurasian State Railways, the JSC “Azerbaijan Rail- railway lines and on the capacity of Ka- countries located away from the main ways”, the JSC “Georgian Railways”, the zakhstan's and Azerbaijan’s Baku maritime transport routes became strongly JSC “NC Aktau International Sea Trade seaports in order to create favorable tariff interested in launching the inland transit Port”, the Baku International Sea Trade conditions. Despite the agreements, there corridors, especially between and Port, the JSC “Azerbaijan Caspian Ship- remains one important missing part of the the European Union (EU). According to the ping Company” and the LLC “Batumi Sea TITR, namely, the 826-kilometer Baku- report of the United Nations Conference on Port”. Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway connection. Trade and Development, it is expected that The most significant result of the TITR Opening of the BTK railway with an annual the foreign trade between China and the working group meeting was reached in carrying capacity of 6.5 million tons by the EU, which as of today amounts to nearly Batumi on July 24, 2015, namely, in coor- end of the year with further integration with $600 billion, would exceed 170 million dination with the Chinese transport com- the “Marmaray” rail project under the tons, or $800 billion by 2020. Therefore, it pany, Minsheng Logistics, the parties Bosporus Strait will allow freight trains to is obvious why establishing transcontinen- managed to launch the first container train travel between Europe and Asia along the tal transportation network is so economi- over the Trans-Caspian International fully launched Trans-Caspian International cally vital for the Central and Western Transport Route. On July 28, 2015, the test Transport Route. Asian countries. cargo train departed from the Xinjiang However, even if all parts of the TITR The idea to reduce the time exposure for province in China, travelled along the corridor are linked together, there will still delivering goods across Eurasia has Shihezi--Aktau-Alyat-Keshla route be a necessity to increase the transit caused the revitalization of the historical through the territories of Kazakhstan and capacity of the existing infrastructural Great Silk Road concept, which was trans- Azerbaijan, and arrived at the Baku Inter- facilities. For instance, the “Kazakhstan formed into the so-called “New Silk Road” national Trade Port complex, located in the Temir Zholy” transport company is about to intermodal East-West transport infrastruc- town of Alyat (around 30 miles southwest finish the expansion works in the Aktau ture initiative. As a part of the initiative of Baku). The train carried caustic soda port, which will allow to put in operation a mentioned above, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and consisted of 41 platforms and 82 new grain terminal with a capacity of 1.5 Georgia and Turkey agreed on creation of containers, weighing 20 tons each. It million tons and two additional dry-cargo the Trans-Caspian International Transport traveled for 6 days and for more than 4,000 terminals with a total capacity of 1.5 million Route (TITR). In the framework of the TITR kilometers, passing through the Kazakh tons. Moreover, two universal ferries will be project, a cargo train that launches from port of Aktau. purchased within the framework of imple- China will be able to reach Europe in less Therefore, it was the first successful at- mentation of the new state program. than 14 days, which is the most competi- tempt to launch a cargo train from China to Herewith, the port capacity will increase tive route in terms of transport time. For the Caspian region through the Caspian from 16.8 million tons to 21 million tons per instance, it takes around 15-19 days for a Sea. Even though it was a test train, it year. cargo train that departs from China and showed the high capability of the parties to In addition, Azerbaijan is also upgrading its passes through the Russian territories to reach an agreement on tariff policy and on maritime infrastructure. In accordance with reach Europe, and it takes more than a harmonized customs procedures providing the plans for modernization of the Caspian month for a cargo from the Eastern China a competitive route from Asia to Europe. Sea infrastructure, Azerbaijani officials to arrive in Europe using the current mari- The second container train via the Trans- made a decision to launch a new port time route. Therefore, the TITR would have Caspian International Transport Route complex in Alyat as part of the Baku sea- obvious advantages over the existing arrived in Georgia on October 3, 2015. The port. The first ferry terminal in Alyat with inland and maritime routes. train, consisting of 44 containers, departed transshipment volume of 10 million tons of The agreement on the establishment of the from the Chinese Xinjiang province, trav- cargo per year was opened in 2014. At the Coordination Committee to develop the elled on the -Dostyk-Aktau- final stage of the construction works, the Trans-Caspian International Transport Alyat-Tbilisi route and arrived in Georgia in Alyat port complex is expected to have an Route was signed by the representatives of eight days. The second test train showed annual transport capacity of up to 25 mil- the national railway companies from Azer- that the organization of the container lion tons. baijan, Kazakhstan and Georgia, and the service on the China-Kazakhstan- In conclusion, it should be noted that the representatives of the ports of Aktau and Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey route could sharp drop in oil prices has increased the Baku during the 2nd International really meet the expectations of the TITR significance of benefits of freight transpor- Transport and Logistics Business Forum members. For instance, it is expected that tation, especially for countries such as “New Silk Road” in November 2013. Dur- approximately 300,000-400,000 containers Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Therefore, ing the 5th meeting of the Coordination will be transported via the Trans-Caspian establishing the Trans-Caspian Interna- Committee on the development of the International Transport Route by 2020 tional Corridor should be considered as a Trans-Caspian International Transport ensuring an average speed of up to 1,100 mutually beneficial project, which could Route, which was held on October 20, km a day. Participants predict that the potentially pave the way to build new 2014 in Baku, participants of the TITR TITR will initially be able to transport up to multimodal transportation hubs in Eurasia.

Politics, Foreign Affairs and Security lateral relations, issues of security Mamytbekov, a new subsidizing in the zone of responsibility of the mechanism will increase the effi-  Alexander Lukashenko won the Collective Security Treaty Organ- ciency of crop cultivation and cat- fifth term as the President of Bel- ization (CSTO). In order to rein- tle breeding in the country. The arus with 83.5% votes. According force its military base in Tajikistan focus will be on the purchase of to the Central Election Commis- and secure the region Russia de- machinery and equipment, and sion, other three candidates could cided to deploy Mi-24P attack introduction of new technologies, not manage to gain more that 5% and Mi-8MTV transport and com- which aimed at reduce the costs of votes. The total voter turnout bat helicopters. of cotton harvest by 5-6 times. was 86.75%.  During the official visit to Astana,  According to the Ministry of In-  The latest session of the Council the President of Ukraine, Petro dustry and New Technologies of of Foreign Ministers and the Poroshenko, discussed the im- Tajikistan, coal production in the Council of the CIS Heads-of- plementation of the Minsk Peace country increased by almost State took place at the Burabai Agreements with the President of 26.5% or up to 760,000 tons for Health Resort, Kazakhstan. Dur- Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarba- the period from January to Sep- ing the session, documents regu- yev. tember 2015 compared to the

lating cooperation in the areas of Economy, Finance and Energy same period in 2014. immigration, culture, emergency  The European Bank for Recon- management, the fight against  The Economy and Industry Minis- struction and Development crime, and border security were try of Azerbaijan announced (EBRD) and Tengizchevroil adopted. about the establishment of a joint (TCO) signed an Agreement to  During the work visit to Sochi, the work group with Communication launch a new two-year program President of Kyrgyzstan, Almaz- and Information Technology Min- of support for small and medium- bek Atambayev, held a meeting istry of to discuss actions for sized enterprises in Kazakhstan. with the President of Russia, Vla- linking railway lines as part of the TCO has contributed a total dimir Putin. The leaders dis- North-South Transport Corridor amount of €458,000 to the pro- cussed bilateral cooperation is- and the creation of appropriate in- gram, implemented by the EBRD. sues, progress of implementation frastructure on the two countries’  The National Bank of Kazakhstan of joint projects, prospects of fur- border. The Agreement was (NBK) announced the decision to ther cooperation in different are- reached at a meeting between place restrictions for second-tier as, including in the framework of parties in Azerbaijani city of banks on issuing foreign currency the Eurasian Economic Union. Astara. loans to individuals without for-  The participants of the Contact  According to the transport nation- eign currency income. Group for peaceful settlement in al company, , the railways of Kazakh- Society and Culture Donbas met in the Belarusian capital Minsk to discuss the out- stan, and Iran  Two bombs exploded at a peace come of the last week’s Norman- agreed to establish a single tariff march near the main train station dy Four summit in Paris. As a re- for the new Uzen-Bolashak- in Ankara killing at least 97 peo- sult of the talks, the self- Serhetyaka-Akyayla-Incheburun ple and wounding 246 others. proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk international railway line. The par-  The Minister of Defense of Kyr- people’s republics (DPR and ties have reached an agreement gyzstan, Abibilla Kudaiberdiev, LPR) changed the dates of local on establishing a single tariff for who was earlier accused of cor- elections from October 18 and container trains running from ruption, has been dismissed from November 1, 2015 to approxi- China to Iran starting from Octo- his post in accordance with the mately February 21, 2016 in or- ber 15, 2015. decree signed by the Kyzgyz der to give Ukraine a chance to  According to the Ministry of Fi- President, Almazbek Atambayev. honor commitments on the Minsk nance of Ukraine, the state and  According to the Federal Migra- Agreements. state-guaranteed debt of the tion Service of Russia, there are  A regular round of the Geneva country totaled almost 1.5 trillion 520,328, 966,789 and 2,029,945 International Discussions on se- hryvnias (more than $70.5 billion) migrants in Russia from Kyrgyz- curity and stability in the South as of August 31 having increased stan, Tajikistan and Caucasus were held in Geneva, by 394 billion hryvnias (more than respectively. Switzerland. Discussions pro- $18.5 billion) from the beginning  Belarusian writer Svetlana Alex- ceeded in two working groups, on of 2015. ievich was awarded the 2015 No- security-related issues and on  The Ministry of Economic Devel- bel Prize in literature for her poly- humanitarian matters, including opment of Russia reduced its phonic writings, a monument to the situation with displaced per- baseline forecasts for inflation in suffering and courage in our time. sons, refugees and humanitarian Russia from 7% to 6.4% in 2016  The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemis- ties. and from 6.3% to 6% in 2017. try has been awarded for discov-  The President of Russia, Vladimir The inflation forecast for 2018 eries in DNA repair. Tomas Lin- Putin, and the President of Tajiki- was left unchanged at 5.1%. dahl and Paul Modrich and Aziz stan, Emomali Rakhmon, held a  The Government of Kazakhstan Sancar, Turkish scholar, were meeting in Sochi, the main agen- adopted a program to reform the named as the winners. da of which was the situation in system of state subsidies for ag- Afghanistan. They discussed pro- riculture sector. According to the spects for the development of bi- Minister of Agriculture, Asylzhan

Prepared by Lidiya Parkhomchik, Hayal Ayca Simsek, Saule Akhmetkaliyeva.