The International Ministerial Conference on the development of transport and transit cooperation that took place at the Congress Hall of Avaza National Tourist Zone on 28 November attracted great attention of the foreign mass media that highlighted the tremendous importance of the Lapis Lazuli (AfghanistanTurkmenistanAzerbaijanGeorgiaTurkey) multimodal transport and transit corridor that aims to revive the Great Silk Road in a new format.
Informative and analytical articles by major international and national sources such as News Central Asia (aCa), Trend, Eurasia Net, News Day, Azertage, Hurriyet Daily News, SNG.today, ABC, Anadolu Agency, TNews, Uzbekistan 24, Infopole, Avesta.TJ, ArmInfo and others that closely follow developments in transport and communications sector in our region repeatedly raised the issue of the tremendous influence of the Lapis Lazuli corridor on sustainable economic development of Eurasia.
In their coverage of the International conference in Avaza, the foreign mass media highlighted the high importance of this route in mitigating the consequences of the global financial crisis that negatively affected economic growth in nearly every country of the region.
The subject matter experts say that the AfghanistanTurkmenistan AzerbaijanGeorgiaTurkey transport corridor is a key element in resolving a number of pertinent economic issues in Asia.Although it requires some degree of modernization and additional legal assembly process, most of the infrastructure of this new route already exists today, and the project may give a strong impetus to the development of production in the region.
In particular, this will have a positive impact on the revival of Afghanistan’s economy.Our country provides comprehensive support to the brotherly country and facilitates implementation of major projects and programs.
This includes the TurkmenistanAfghanistanPakistanIndia gas pipeline, the TurkmenistanAfghanistanPakistan power line and fiber-optic connection, the SerhetabatTorghundi railway as part of the Lapis Lazuli corridor and others.According to foreign analysts, it is transport projects that will soon give a powerful impetus to the development of economy in Afghanistan and the region as a whole.
The construction of a modern transport infrastructure overall, and full operation of the Lapis Lazuli corridor in particular can encourage manufacturers to boost production of goods that cannot be now offered to consumers due to the limited availability of transport and transit routes.
Analytical journalists think that the Lapis Lazuli project will help speed up cargo flows and minimize the distance between producers of goods and market outlets, which will make products less costly for foreign consumers and foster interest of major trade companies in forging cooperation with regional producers.
They place a special emphasis on Turkmenistan’s transport infrastructure that has an immense potential.
These opportunities were explicitly presented at the International Ministerial Conference in Avaza. The foreign mass media highlighted the advantages of Turkmenistan’s geographical location at the crossroads of the continent’s main roads that enable our country to successfully implement its national transport potential in shipping goods across Eurasia.
By highlighting the crucial importance of issues discussed at the forum, the reports in mass media also said that cooperation in such promising sphere as transport and logistics served as an ultimate factor in integration processes in the context of globalization of the world economy that requires an extensive and safe international transport infrastructure.
At the conference, heads of transport companies and cargo owners were able to analyze and seek solutions for fulfillment of development plans and optimization of logistics processes.The forum also became another step towards successful implementation of initiatives proposed by the Turkmen leader who supports laying the foundations for the emergence of an architecture of a new geo-economic space that will unite Central Asia; the Caspian Sea, Black Sea and Baltic Sea regions; Middle East; South and Southeast Asia, stressing that all these goals complied with key objectives of the partners - both major international organizations and individual countries.
Reports from the International Ministerial Conference highlighted that an unprecedented leap in development of this sphere in our country indicated the actual creation in Turkmenistan of an international transit and transport hub at the crossroads of the continent’s crucial trade routes.
The press drew their readers’ attention to the fact that international transport corridors became key globalization mechanisms for the world economy.