Tehran Transit Forum: Turkmenistan Presents Potential Growth and Tariff Reductions
A six-party meeting at the level of deputy ministers of transport of Iran and Central Asian countries was held on Saturday in Tehran, on the eve of the first summit of industry leaders of these states. The main topic of today's meeting is the coordination of the provisions of the joint document, which will be adopted by the ministers following the talks on Sunday, October 9.
Tehran was the initiator of the Iran-Central Asia transport forum. The purpose of the event is to identify measures to enhance transit traffic in the region and increase its volume to 20 million tons per year.
“To achieve this goal, Iran will provide its landlocked neighbors with access routes to open waters,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari said at the opening ceremony of the forum. He also noted that Iran will soon hold an international conference in this area.
Attracting investments in infrastructure, improving border traffic, developing digital technologies in transit processes, simplifying the visa regime for drivers, as well as improving tariffs and transit fees are among the main tasks of the summit.
Since October 1, new tariffs for drivers of foreign vehicles have already come into force in Turkmenistan, which favor the increase in multimodal transportation. Until November 15 of this year. A “pandemic” regime is still in effect at the border entrances, when only a trailer enters the country, which is transported further by Turkmen transport, that is, drivers do not need visas in this case.
And now tariffs for unloading and loading goods to the first station have been reduced, a simplified procedure for issuing visas for drivers is being developed.
Given that the automobile segment prevails over the rail segment in the cargo transportation of Iran and Turkey, these measures by the Turkmen transport authorities should stimulate the growth of transit flows through the country and promote intensive trade throughout the entire region.
In general, according to experts, a multiple increase in road transport on transit routes through Turkmenistan is expected. And therefore, really working mechanisms of clear interaction with foreign partners are needed here – this is the main goal of Turkmenistan's participation in the Tehran transport forum.
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