The heads of the railways of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan have proposed that Ukraine consider the idea of creating a joint venture for development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. The Cabinet of Ministers announced this in a statement, citing a meeting between Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman with the heads of the railways of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan.
Groysman stressed that cooperation in the transport industry with GUAM member countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova) and Ukraine's partners in Central Asia is a priority shared by both the Ukrainian government and the governments of the partner countries. In this context, he mentioned the establishment of the Logistics Committee, which deals with development of new routes for transportation of goods.
According to the Cabinet of Ministers statement, Ukraine, within the framework of developing its transit potential, is ready to participate in creation of new transport corridors and join existing routes, including routes from Central Asia to the South-West via Georgia and Azerbaijan towards Europe.
"During the conversation, the heads of the railway companies of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan asked the government of Ukraine to participate in the development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route and, possibly, creation of a joint venture that would allow implementation of the ‘single window’ principle during the handling of goods traveling along this route,” the Cabinet of Ministers said.
The heads of the railway companies stressed that this could become a significant competitive advantage of countries in using transit opportunities.
"If we can create a joint transport corridor and a joint venture – these are normal approaches – our association will yield good a result for our countries. Submit proposals,” Groysman said at the meeting.
He instructed Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Kistion to prepare a roadmap for performing the relevant joint work and achieving solutions.
