Today, a meeting was held at the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC (AZD) with the delegation of the international port of Xi’an of the People’s Republic of China.
As Day.Az was informed by the press service of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, at the meeting the chairman of Azerbaijan Railways Rovshan Rustamov noted that cooperation in the field of cargo transportation along the Middle Corridor is developing between Azerbaijan adn China, a striking example of which is that for the first time export cargo was sent from Baku by rail to China.
It was noted that with this historical event, economic and transport relations between the two countries entered a new stage.Cargo transportation both from East to West and in the opposite direction further increases the efficiency of the Middle Corridor. AZD is also interested in intensively developing cooperation with China within the framework of the Belt and Road initiative and the Eurasian transport route.
According to the facts, AZD is implementing a number of crucial projects with the aim of transforming Azerbaijan into an international transport and logistics hub and increasing cargo transportation along international corridors passing through the country. The expansion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line and an increase in throughput to 5 million tons per year makes it possible to increase cargo transportation in the East-West direction.
Director of the management Committee of Xi’an International Port of China Sun Im and General Manager of “Xi’an Free Trade Port Construction and Operation Co Ltd” Yuan Xiaojun reported that they attach particular importance to the development of cooperation with the transport and logistics structures of Azerbaijan, including the Azerbaijan Railways, and emphasized the importance of expanding cooperation in the direction of increasing the volume of cargo along the Middle Corridor.
It should be noted that the first Baku-Xi’an export block train consists of 62 40-foot containers. This cargo will be delivered through Kazakhstan to the port of Xi’an, one of the largest land ports in China. Initially, as part of the project, by the end of this year, it is indeed planned to send a total of 15 thousand tons of export cargo, that is, 600 containers, to China along this route.
Let us recall that since the beginning of 2024, 280 container block trains have been sent from the people’s Republic of China to Azerbaijan. By the end of this year, it is indeed planned to receive more than 300 container block trains from China along the corresponding route.By 2025, the number of block trains is planned to increase more than 3 times and reach 1000.