Improving the efficiency of southern transport corridors

Due to the reorientation of freight traffic by Uzbek carriers to southern destinations, freight traffic has been moving along the traditional TRACECA corridor linking Black Sea ports with Central Asian countries, as well as through transit areas for road and European transport.

In this direction, there is an increase in the flow of Uzbekistan's import-export cargo. Since the beginning of 2022, the growth of Uzbek cargo to the Black Sea ports of Georgia (Batumi, Poti) has almost doubled in comparison with last year due to the cargo previously sent to Europe via the Russian Federation. Cargoes destined for Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan have also increased significantly.

In order to develop the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Afghanistan transport corridor, a trial traffic of a container goods train along the new Kashkar-Ush-Andijan-Hairaton transit route was launched in September this year through the joint efforts of the parties.

It is especially noteworthy that as a result of negotiations held on 15 July this year, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan signed a Joint Declaration "On the establishment of relations of strategic partnership between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Republic of Pakistan". The agreement has sharply stimulated growth in freight traffic between the two countries, as well as the growth of transit traffic using Pakistan's Indian Ocean seaports (Karachi, Gwadar, Qasim).

Since the beginning of 2022, multimodal transport from ports in India (Bambi, Jawaharlal Nehru), Malaysia (Beliting) and Singapore (Belitung port) has been organised along the Termez-Hairan-Kabul-Peshawar-Karachi corridor in direct and reverse directions.

While a number of neighbouring countries of Uzbekistan have imposed restrictions on food exports, our transport companies have successfully mastered and organised food deliveries from South-East Asia, Pakistan and India.

Foodstuffs from India have been carried through this corridor: sugar - more than 200,000 tonnes, rice - 180,000 tonnes, meat - 15,000 tonnes, and other goods. In the opposite direction, 200,000 tonnes of pulses (mung beans, peas and beans) were exported from Uzbekistan, as well as from neighbouring republics. By the end of 2022, it is planned that the total volume of freight traffic through this transport corridor will be about 1 million tons of cargo.

Today about 97 per cent of India's and Pakistan's total trade with EU countries, as well as China, is done by sea. In this regard, accelerating the implementation of the Termez-Mazar-е-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar and China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway projects is important. Before the completion of construction work on these projects, it is acceptable to establish transport corridors by organizing multimodal transport.

Implementation of the above-mentioned projects will increase the efficiency of existing international transport corridors and form new international transport corridors. This will allow Central Asian countries to diversify routes, expand the geography of transportation, as well as attract additional volumes of transit, providing access to new markets.