The United Nations has called on central Asian countries to build dry ports to support the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)'s effort to develop an intergovernmental agreement on dry ports.
According to Azerbaijan's Trend news agency, the need for dry ports was stressed during the 17th session of the Project Working Group for Transport and Border Crossing Facilitation (PWG-TBC) under the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA), which is under the chairmanship of deputy Minister of Transport and Communications of Kazakhstan Azat Bekturov.
The press service of Kazakhstan's Ministry of Transport and Communications said members of the PWG also noted the priority projects in road, rail and inland waterway transport as defined by the expert group for the Euro-Asian Transport Links (EATL).
Worth US$215 billion, these include such projects as the reconstruction of the international transit corridor Western Europe-Western China, the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars rail line, Baku International Port Complex and the redevelopment of the Bishkek-Naryn-Torugart highway.
The meeting was attended by delegations from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and several international organisations. The Kazakh side was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Border Service of the National Security Committee.
Source: Bernama