Minister: Cargo worth over 1 million tons transported via Kyrgyzstan using TRACECA

By Trend

The Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) plays an important role in the international arena, since, in addition to economic benefits, it unites countries and peoples, Kyrgyzstan's Minister of Transport and Road Zhanat Beishenov said.

Beishenov made the remark at the event in Baku dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the signing the Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for Development of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia Corridor and the 14th meeting of the Permanent Secretariat of the TRACECA Intergovernmental Commission (IGC), Trend reports on Dec. 6.

The Kyrgyz minister noted that TRACECA is an independent Eurasian corridor and is multimodal in nature.

This was a rather ambitious agreement, the minister noted, adding that in 2018, about one million tons of cargo was transported via Kyrgyzstan using TRACECA.

"Two thousand kilometers of roads have been reconstructed along the TRACECA route in Kyrgyzstan. One of the priority tasks is the construction of a railway from China to Uzbekistan, that goes through Kyrgyzstan," Zhanat Beishenov said.

The international conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for the Development of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Corridor and the 14th meeting of the Permanent Secretariat of the TRACECA Intergovernmental Commission is being held in Baku on Dec. 6.

The official representatives of TRACECA member-states and observer countries, representatives of international organizations are participating in the event.

TRACECA is a program of international cooperation between the EU and the partner countries in the creation of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor. In organizational terms, TRACECA is an intergovernmental commission.

TRACECA program was established in 1993 on the basis of the Brussels Declaration with the participation of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Moldova, Mongolia and Ukraine joined the program later; Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria in 2000, Iran in 2009.