During a working visit to Turkmenistan, the delegation of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) held a meeting at the Turkmendemirellary Agency on March 7. The subject of the conversation was interaction on the future of corridors with national freight operators and logisticians.

The Turkmen Railway Department familiarized the Japanese guests in detail with the work of the industry and the functioning of transport corridors passing through the country.

It was noted that today there are wide opportunities for realizing the transport potential of Turkmenistan, located at the strategically important intersection of the Eurasian transport and transit routes. In this regard, the importance of signing an Agreement on the creation of an international transport corridor between the Governments of Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, known as the Ashgabat Agreement, was stressed. Qatar, Kazakhstan and India have also joined this agreement.

The Lapis lazuli Corridor connecting Afghanistan with Turkey and Europe has great prospects. An agreement on it was signed in 2017 between Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. This corridor is designed to strengthen the economic integration of the region and improve the lives of the Afghan people through the country's participation in world trade.

The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway has also opened up new opportunities for increasing freight traffic between the countries of Central Asia, the Caspian Basin and neighboring regions. In addition, Turkmenistan has officially joined the agreement on the TRACECA international transport corridor.

Taking into account the changing situation in the world, Turkmenistan proposed to take measures to develop the North-South MTC and reduce existing barriers to increase the potential of the transport sector. Currently, the international multimodal route "Countries of the Asia-Pacific region – China – Kyrgyzstan – Uzbekistan – Turkmenistan – Azerbaijan – Georgia – Turkey – Europe" (CASCA+) is developing rapidly.

The Turkmenbashi International Seaport, capable of handling more than 17 million tons of cargo per year, is becoming a major logistics center at the junction of Asia and Europe. The day before, JICA experts also visited it, studying the possibilities and resources of Turkmenistan's transport infrastructure.

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