CAREC Corridors' Implementation Progress, Planned Activities and Support Needs Republic of Uzbekistan Connectivity with South and East Asia Countries Ministry of Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan Azizbek Salahiddinov Head, Transit Potential, Logistics and Transport Corridors Development Department Progress in Projects Implementation Formation of Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman Transport Corridor (the Ashgabat Agreement), which is the most economically efficient corridor for the countries in the region due to the short distance to the seaports, availability of tariff preferences, and minimum goods delivery times (7-10 days), is nearing its completion. To this end, our Turkmenistan friends have opened new rail and road bridges Turkmenabat-Farab across Amu Darya river, which constitute an important section of the Corridor. Progress in Projects Implementation Progress in Projects Implementation Along with the operating Trans-Caucasian Corridor (TRACECA) Tashkent –Turkmenbashi – Baku – Poti – Burgas/Constanta with a train ferry connection to the South European countries (which was practically not used in recent years), new perspective opportunities are provided by opening of the railway operation Baku – Tbilisi – Akhalkalaki – Kars. Railroad opening ceremony was held in Baku in October 2017. • For reference: Railway capacity is up to 3 million passengers and 17 million tons of cargo annually. Progress in Projects Implementation TBILISI AKHALKALAKI KARS BAKU Progress in Projects Implementation Along with multiple conventional corridors, for road transport a corridor following the route Andijan – Osh – Irkeshtam – Kashi (Kashgar) has very good prospects. Road haulage along this route began since February 25 this year, with the direct involvement of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. • For reference: Last year, between October 30 and November 3, an international pilot caravan trip was held with participation of 9 vehicles from 3 countries. Total distance of 920 kilometers was traveled in 31 hours, of which 16 hours on the move. The speed of the motorcade averaged approximately 50-60 km/h. Crossing of the Uzbekistan- Kyrgyzstan border at BCP Dustlik took about 1.5 hours, and the Kyrgyz- Chinese border at BCP Irkeshtam about 2 hours. Progress in Projects Implementation Progress in Projects Implementation Tashkent Andijan Osh Kashi Sary-Tash Irkeshtam Perspective Projects Strategically, no less important is the railroad Mazar-i-Sharif – Herat (the Trans-Afghanistan Corridor) construction project, which will become a logical conclusion of establishing the Transcontinental Transport Corridor China – Central Asia – South Asia – Middle East. • For reference: Implementation of this project will allow to start in the long term the construction of two strategically important routes with connections to seaports through Iran and Pakistan: Herat – Delaram (Afghanistan) – Zahedan – port Chabakhar (Iran); and Herat – Delaram – Kandahar (Afghanistan) – Chaman (Pakistan). Perspective Projects Perspective Projects Construction of a new long distance railway Uzbekistan – Kyrgyzstan – China will allow to establish new transcontinental corridors China – Central Asia – the Caucasus – Europe; and China – Central Asia – Afghanistan – Iran, which will be shorter in comparison with the existing corridors (through Kazakhstan and Russia) by almost 1,000km. Planned Event International transport conference "Central Asia in the System of International Transport Corridors: Strategic Perspectives and Unrealized Opportunities". Venue: Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Time: September 2018. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!.