Georgia is one of the active participants of the TRACECA corridor

The purpose of the visit was to discuss further prospects of cooperation and the Plan of Events on the development of the corridor, taking into consideration the implementation of new TRACECA initiatives requiring the support of the Georgian Party.

During the meeting, the participants discussed the economic trends in Georgia and the measures to increase the country's transport and logistics potential.

In his turn, Secretary General shared his impressions of the Red Bridge checkpoint on the border of Azerbaijan with Georgia, where he managed to familiarize himself with the procedure and conditions of crossing the state border along the Baku-Tbilisi route. Mr. Assavbayev pointed out the importance of effective functioning of the BCP within the development of the TRACECA corridor.

The agenda of the meeting included the discussions on major infrastructure projects, such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway route, the East-West expressway, projects aimed at increasing port capacities, as well as the modernization of the Georgian railways.

According to Ms. Turnava, the effective functioning of these projects will significantly increase the capacity of the transport infrastructure of Georgia, as well as improve the transport safety.

At the same time, special attention was focused on increasing the speed of container traffic. In particular, in 2019, Georgian ports serviced record numbers of container traffic, which shows an increase of 42 per cent compared with 2018. This trend still persists in 2020. In addition, the number of containers sent by the Georgian Railways also increased, which is 39 per cent more compared with 2019.

The participants of the meeting exchanged views and vision on the issue of digitalization of the transport corridor. The digitalization project will significantly increase the competitiveness and attractiveness of the corridor that will connect China and Europe via Central Asia and the Caucasus. On the outcomes of the discussions, an agreement was reached on strengthening cooperation in this dimension.