Tag Archives: logistics

Turkmenistan opens new road to boost trade

APRIL 17 2024 (The Bulletin) — Turkmenistan opened a 109km section of road linking the cities of Mary and Tedzhen in the south of the country that officials said would boost trade.

Pres. Serdar Berdymukhamedov described the Ashgabat-Turkmenabat road, which aims to carry products imported from East Asia to Europe, as a new “Silk Road”.

Work on the 600km Ashgabat-Turkmenabat highway across the Karakum Desert began in 2019. Turkmenabat lies on Turkmenistan’s northern border with Uzbekistan.

Like other countries in Central Asia, Turkmenistan has benefited from a boom in East-West trade since the start of the war in Ukraine and in particular an increase of trade between Russia and Iran. Russia has been buying drones from Iran, which are shipped across the Caspian Sea, and has sent back fuel on rail, through Central Asia.

This week too, Russian officials said that they were interested in restarting the Moscow-Ashgabat passenger railway route which was closed in 1993.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 565 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on April 23 2024

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2024

Turkey to streamline customs on South Caucasus railway

Leave a Reply

APRIL 8 2024 (The Bulletin) — Turkey wants to streamline customs rules for goods carried from Asia to Europe along the 829km Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, part of a wider effort to boost the so-called Middle Corridor transport route (April 8). Turkish media reported that the new rules will exempt goods from physical checks, relying more heavily on x-ray images. This, officials said, should speed up journey times.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 564 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on April 15 2024

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2024

Georgia plans new mega airport

Leave a Reply

TBILISI/APRIL 8 2024 (The Bulletin) — Georgia plans to build a new international airport five times the size of the current one as it bets big on a tourism bonanza.

Irakli Kobakhidze, Georgia’s PM, announced the plan to spend $1.26b building a new airport at Vazinani, 20km to the east of Tbilisi.

“The design and tender procedures will be completed next year, and in a few years, the country will have a completely new, state-of-the-art airport,” he said.

The new airport will be the largest in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region and highlights Georgia’s position as the region’s tourist hotspot.

This year the Georgian authorities hope to attract more than 5m tourists, second only to Uzbekistan in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region which attracted more than 6m tourists last year. Uzbekistan has just built a new airport at Samarkand.

Mr Kobakhidze said the new Tbilisi airport will handle up to 19m passengers per year, compared to roughly 4m at the current airport.

He said that the government had ruled out expanding the current airport because its capacity was limited to 15m people. “There would be no further development prospects,” he said.

Georgia has been trying to keep up with a surge in demand for tourism from Europe and the Middle East as well as demands from business to act as an Asia-EU transit hub.

This year, new direct routes from Britain to Georgia have opened, although most of the growth has come from routes into and out of the Middle East, where Georgia is marketed as an accessible European holiday destination.

As well as Tbilisi, Batumi and Kutaisi have international airports.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 564 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on April 15 2024

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2024

Turkey lifts ban on sending cargo flights to Armenia

Leave a Reply

JAN. 6 2023 (The Bulletin) — Turkey lifted a ban on cargo flights to Armenia, part of its package to “normalise” relations. The move was agreed in July 2022 and is designed to lay the foundations for the slow opening of the Armenia-Turkey border. There have been no diplomatic or trade relations between Turkey and Armenia since 1993 when the border was closed. Armenia and Turkey have agreed to open the border to citizens of third countries although they have not put a timeline on this.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 532 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Jan. 16 2023

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2023

Uzbek airports cut landing rates for foreign airlines

Leave a Reply

OCT. 21 2021 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s airports cut their landing rates for foreign airlines by around 15% and divided service options into ‘pick-and-mix’ packages (Oct. 21). Central Asia’s airports and airlines are competing for the lucrative Asia-Europe passenger and freight trade. Rano Juraeva, chairman of Uzbekistan Airports, said in a statement that the rate cut was designed to “attract foreign airlines”. As well as investing in airports and logistics hubs, governments in Central Asia have been investing in upgrades to their state-run national airlines.

–ENDS–

— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

China stops processing cargo from Central Asia

Leave a Reply

ALMATY/BISHKEK/OCT. 27 2021 (The Bulletin) — China has stopped processing rail cargo to and from Central Asia at its Khorgos terminal on the Kazakhstan-China border because it is prioristing a backlog of wagons heading to Europe.

A Beijing-based official from Kazakhstan’s national railway company Temir Zholy told media that there were 3,000 railway wagons stuck at the border trying to get into Kazakhstan and 7,000 trying to get into China.

“The main demand from the Chinese side is for container trains to the EU,” the official was quoted as saying. “They account for 90% of all traffic, while in the direction of Central Asia only 10%.”

Freight networks in Central Asia are under increasing pressure. Kyrgyz officials have also said that their usual border crossings directly into China at the Torugart and Irkeshtam passes are either closed or reduced to a fraction of their pre-coronavirus traffic, forcing most truck drivers to cross into Kazakhstan and head for Khorgos.

Not only is this a major detour but Kyrgyz truck drivers have said that Kazakh officials harass them. The head of the Kyrgyz Freight Carriers Association Temirbek Shabdanaliev said that he thought that Kazakh customs officials had been told to harass Kyrgyz drivers to put Chinese companies off using the Kyrgyzstan route into Central Asia.

“Our drivers have to unload and load several times, often in bad weather. This takes five or six days,” he said.

Kazakh officials have said they are trying to clamp down on smuggling.

–ENDS–

— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

CEVA Logistics sets up office in Tashkent

Leave a Reply

OCT. 21 2021 (The Bulletin) — Highlighting Uzbekistan’s growing attraction as a place for Western logistics companies to base themselves in the Central Asia region, CEVA Logistics said that it would set up an office in Tashkent. CEVA Logistics is owned by France’s CMA CGM, one of the world’s largest container shipping companies.

–ENDS–

— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Port of Baku to build fertiliser terminal

Leave a Reply

JUNE 9 2021 (The Bulletin) — Baku Port said that it had started construction work on a fertiliser terminal. The plan is to have the terminal up and running by the end of 2022 to ship fertilisers from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan across the Caspian Sea, the South Caucasus and the Black Sea to Europe.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 48 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 16 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

China to build Belt and Road terminal in Kyrgyzstan

Leave a Reply

BISHKEK/JUNE 7 2021 (The Bulletin) — China signed a deal to finance the development of a $100m industrial sector in Kyrgyzstan a few days after Pres. Xi Jinping telephoned Kazakh Pres. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to talk up the prospect of deeper relations.

The industrial sector deal highlights China’s status as Kyrgyzstan’s biggest financial backer and cements the importance of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for Central Asia.

According to press reports, “investors” from China will pay $20m initially to develop the Silk Way Industrial Park with subsequent payments pushing up total investment to $100m.

The 70 hectare site on the border with Kazakhstan, 30km from Manas International Airport, is considered by China to be a key part of its BRI project to boost East-West trade. The BRI hinges on building infrastructure across the region which has allowed China to increase its influence. In May, China said that it would boost aid to Kyrgyzstan and this week media reported that, in a phone call, Chinese Pres. Xi told Kazakh Pres. Tokayev that relations needed to “advance in the right direction”.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Pakistan offers Uzbekistan access to its ports

Leave a Reply

MARCH 11 (The Bulletin) — On a two day visit to Pakistan, Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov talked up the potential of Pakistan’s ports at Karachi and Gwadar as “gateways to Central Asia”. The landlocked Central Asian republics are continually looking for ways to get access to the sea. The ports at Karachi and Gwadar are being upgraded by China as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. Sending goods through them would give Central Asian manufacturers direct access to the Indian Ocean.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021