24 January 2020 15:32 (UTC+04:00)
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By Trend
Expectations of growth in cargo transportation in Azerbaijan in 2020 are well justified, an expert on international governance, Director of the Caucasus Center for Political Analysis Ahmad Alili told Trend.
The expert noted that Azerbaijan has been actively investing in its infrastructure over the past few years.
“This mainly concerns the increase in the transit potential of the country. The head of state several times mentioned the development priorities of the country’s transport sector in his speeches, so the fact that special attention is paid to this matter is quite obvious,” the expert said.
“The capital, which has been invested in this sector for all time, should now yield results and work for the benefit of the country’s overall economy. The indicators of cargo transportation using all types of transport infrastructure should be increasing every year.”
The expert considers the interest of other countries in the transit routes that pass through Azerbaijan to be one of the main factors in the growth of cargo transportation.
“China has several routes for delivering its goods to European markets. But, at present, the safest route is the one that passes through Central Asia and Azerbaijan. Naturally, when China and other countries see that the route passing through Azerbaijan is safer than alternative ones, their interest in increasing freight traffic grows, and this directly affects the overall growth in freight traffic through Azerbaijan,” Ahmad Alili said.
“The development of Azerbaijan’s non-oil sector is the second factor in the growth of cargo transportation. When a country develops its non-oil sector, it has products for export, and this, in turn, leads to the fact that the volume of cargo transportation increases significantly.”
The latest report of the Davos World Economic Forum indicated that Azerbaijan ranks 12th in the world in terms of air transport efficiency, 11th in terms of the railways efficiency, and 27th in terms of the quality of roads. In general, Azerbaijan ranks 34th in the world in terms of transport infrastructure, which is a very high indicator.
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