"Turkey, as a member state of the IGC TRACECA, has made a significant contribution to the development of the International Transport Corridor Europe-the Caucasus-Asia since the signing of the Basic Multilateral Agreement (MLA)”

During the exchange of views of Mr. Assavbayev and Mr. Ozoral, the targeted plans, initiatives and opportunities for the development of the ITC TRACECA, the necessity to intensify the work on multimodal transport, as well as to attract the transit cargo flows, to introduce the digital technologies, and to harmonize the legislation of the TRACECA countries were pointed out.

"The Republic of Turkey attaches particular importance to the development of the transport sector and in this regard, the TRACECA international transport corridor plays an important role. In particular, this is evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic period, which demonstrated the TRACECA corridor as a solution to the challenges of ensuring the cargo supply chains in the region. The circumstances and conditions dictated by the pandemic period have shown how much all TRACECA member states need each other. And the application of digital solutions should be one of the priorities in implementation of the TRACECA corridor initiatives," – Mr. Ozoral, the Ambassador of Turkey noted.

Mr. Assavbayev also emphasized the activities of the existing Working Groups on the draft Agreement on a Single Transit Permit aimed at further liberalizing and improving the competitiveness of the corridor, rationalizing the transport routes scheme, developing a Global Transit Document, as well as working on the development of container transport on the TRACECA corridor.

"Currently, the TRACECA countries are discussing the application of practical measures on facilitation of the border crossing procedures, elimination of the bottlenecks, and improvement of the transportation process along the corridor routes. Our objective is a conformity of the TRACECA corridor to the proper level of "service" in terms of value, costs and transportation time,"- Mr. Assavbayev added.

Modernization of equipment for ships and cargo handling in the TRACECA ports, safety of maritime transport and the ports cooperation, conversion of the TRACECA permits system to electronic format, and a single form of a multimodal document were also discussed.

Mr. Assavbayev highlighted the importance of joint efforts and substantial support of each TRACECA member state for initiatives and proposals aimed at further development of the corridor in order to implement the Action Plan on the implementation of the IGC TRACECA Strategy for 2016-2026.

H. E. Ambassador Mr. Ozoral assured Mr. Assavbayev of his direct assistance in implementing the issues necessary for the successful development of the whole TRACECA region.