Turkmenistan considers international cooperation in the transport and logistics sector as one of the priorities of its foreign policy. In this regard, the development of the multimodal transport route CASCA+, in the implementation of which Turkmenistan actively participates, is a vivid example of effective cooperation.

In particular, this was discussed at the VI International transport and logistics business Forum "New Silk Way", which was held on Wednesday, October 4, in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

One of the main objectives of the route is to ensure transport connectivity between the countries of Central Asia and Europe. Since the launch of the route, about 30 thousand containers in 20-foot equivalent have been transported. Turkmenistan has a special role in this project - the country's share in transportation during this period amounted to 9,000 containers in the direction of import, 12,000 containers in the direction of export and 9,000 containers in transit.

The goal of the route operators is to increase the volume of container traffic to 30 thousand containers per year by reducing delivery times, Deputy Director General of the Agency for Transport and Communications under the Cabinet of Ministers Batyr Annayev said in his speech at the forum.

The best result on the route was achieved in May 2021 - containers were delivered from the Turkish city of Izmir to Osh (Kyrgyzstan) in 18 days. Now the goal of the route operators is to ensure the delivery of containers on the route from the Chinese city of Kashgar to Istanbul in no more than 18 days.

CASCA+ is a joint railway project of several countries of Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Turkey, aimed at creating a multimodal transport corridor between Southeast Asia and Europe.

CASCA+ is a joint initiative of the state railways of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Currently, this route covers three regions – Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan), the South Caucasus (Azerbaijan and Georgia), as well as Anatolia (Turkey).

CASCA is the abbreviated name of these regions in English - Central Asia, South Caucasus and Anatolia. The "+" sign in the name of the route indicates readiness to accept new potential participants interested in transportation along the route, the ultimate goal of which is to connect the states of Southeast Asia, in particular China, with Europe.

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