Construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Batumi-Trabzon highway was the main topic of discussions at a meeting of experts in the Georgian city of Batumi on Monday, initiated by the Model Highway, a part of the New Eurasian Land Transport Initiative (NELTI), Trend reports.
The meeting was organized by the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, the International Road and Transport Union and the GUAM.
Participants of the meeting discussed infrastructure and involvement of private business in the process. Infrastructure includes modernizing crossing points and their equipment and expanding networks of petrol stations, parking lots and hotels. This will increase freighting between Europe, the Caucasus and Asia and the creation of new jobs.
Deputy Minister of Economy Georgy Karbelashvili and head of the Department for Transport Policy Ia Janashiya, the chairmen of the Finance Ministry and Ministry for Regional Development and Infrastructure, other related structures of Azerbaijan and Turkey arrived for the talks. Officials from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and businessmen are attending the meeting.
The NELTI project involves monitoring of commercial transport of cargo from the Central Asian Region to Europe. It shows that the problems of the Silkroad are procedural. Neither the route’s length nor the infrastructure are obstacles for ground freighting from China to Europe and back.
The Model Highway is a real mechanism of state and private partnership, uniting private business and government to simplify trade and development of freighting and corruption-control.
The first and main component of the Model Highway is realization of institutional and administrative reforms within transit states to improve the efficiency of trade and border procedures according to UN Conventions for transport. This includes using the “green corridor” for Asian-European freighters and electronic declaration of goods to reduce times for border crossing.
The second component includes formation of road infrastructure, primarily equipment for crossing points and major logistical centers, petrol stations and parking lots.
