Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping and Kazakhstan Railways creating joint venture in field of freight traffic

Baku, April 4, AZERTAC Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping CJSC and Kazakhstan Railways JSC have signed an agreement on creating a joint venture in the field of freight traffic on the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TCITR), the Azerbaijani company said. The agreement on creation of the JV was signed by Head of Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Rauf Valiyev and President of Kazakhstan Railways Kanat Alpysbayev in Baku. The document is a main part of the agreement on strategic cooperation signed between the two sides in December 2016. As is stated, “the joint venture’s creation will give a momentum to the development of the TCITR, implementation of its potential and its effective use, and will become effective after the full commissioning of the Baku International Sea Trade Port and Kazakhstan’s Kuryk port, as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway”. Moreover, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are planning to use unique ferries on the Caspian Sea, and the signed agreement will be useful for these ferries’ operation. Azerbaijan owns fifty percent of the JV’s shares, while the remaining part is owned by Kazakhstan. The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and then through Turkey and Ukraine to Europe. New competitive tariffs were introduced for the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route since June 1, 2016.