On November 06, 2023 in Istanbul (Republic of Türkiye), TRACECA participated in the OECD presentation on initial findings and recommendations of the report "Realizing the Potential of the Middle Corridor"

The main objective of the work in this direction is to study the development potential of the Middle Corridor from the perspective of the private sector and key public actors to help map and sequence the main reform priorities in relation to regional integration, infrastructure, trade facilitation.

Among the invitees and participants of the discussion were government representatives, experts, partners from the trade, transport and logistics sphere in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Türkiye, international organizations (ITF, OTS, BSEC, TRACECA), as well as other interested parties.  

Mr. Achraf Bouali, Head of OECD Istanbul Centre, Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Vice Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of Türkiye, Mr. Kestutis Kudzmanas, Ambassador and Special Advisor at the External Economic Affairs and Economic Security Policy Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairrs of Lithuania, and others made opening remarks to the participants.

During the exchange of views, the participants of the meeting considered issues related to the simplification of trade and customs procedures, harmonization of legal norms, enhancement of infrastructure with a focus on improving multimodality along the route, promotion of regional integration and transnational cooperation, as well as next steps.

During Session 1 of the event, the Secretary General of the PS IGC TRACECA, Mr. Asset Assavbayev, shared the activities that the Permanent Secretariat is working on, including the development of multilateral permits system, visa issues, digitalization, introduction of an electronic data exchange system, etc. In addition, Mr. Assavbayev A.A. presented a number of comments on the voiced findings, particularly on insights from surveys and interviews conducted by the OECD, the identified gaps, and the issue of digitalization in transport in general.

"After completing the work on the preparation of the final report, it is important to work together on one of the recommendations and to point-by-point achieve an increase in the competitiveness of the corridor. An excellent direction would be the use of electronic CMR at the initial stage," Secretary General Assavbayev A.A. highlighted.

It is expected that the final report of the OECD will be presented at the Eurasian Week, which will be held in Paris on December 12-14, 2023.