Baku makes sea step towards becoming hub of hubs

Today the Baku International Sea Trade Port CJSC presented by the Free Trade Zone (FTA) in the Alat township of Baku's Garadagh district. The company's Director General Taleh Ziyadov told about plans to make Baku a regional transit hub, a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza reports.

"The new free trade zone will become the trademark of Azerbaijan in the framework of the project, one of the main principles of which is to create megahab in the region of the Caspian Basin and Central Asia," Taleh Ziyadov said.

"The main feature of the FTA in Alat is that the entire infrastructure will be created here. We already have a post office and bank branches for suppliers," the Director General said, adding that if the project is successful, an airport can be built in Alat.

The head of the Baku International Sea Trade Port stressed that the company understands that the new FTA will have to compete with such popular destinations as Kazakhstan - Russia, China - Mongolia - Russia and Iran - Turkey. "Our main task is not just make Baku seaport a transit area, but also to create added value for goods," he said.

"For example, if China sends a container with goods in their raw form, we will make the finished product and send to the destination. In other words, this project will benefit not only Azerbaijan but also the whole region. Baku will be the center connecting of the hubs. For this purpose we have 400 hectares of free land, and 2 ha can be used for expansion of the FTA," Taleh Ziyadov said.

According to him, the free trade zone may start to operate in the first half of 2017.

Taleh Ziyadov said that industrial clusters, in particular, those ones that are specialized in various segments of the light industry, are planned to be created in the port.

“Firstly, warehouses and clusters, ensuring the creation of value added products, will be created in the zone. At the next stage, it is envisaged to establish small industrial enterprises in the spheres of pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, light industry. It will help to attract big companies to establish distribution sales network not only in Azerbaijan, but also on regional scale,” he pointed out.

Taleh Ziyadov noted that currently, a preparation is underway in order to form a legal regime for the FTZ’s creation.

“The zone’s draft legal regime and a feasibility study on what production will be carried out in its territory will be presented to the country’s government by the end of the year. The master plan of the free trade zone will also be finalized in January-February 2017,” he said.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on March 17, 2016 on the measures to create special economic area of a free trade zone type in the Alat township of Baku's Garadagh district.