A priority task of the socio-economic strategy of President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov is to enhance the transit and export capabilities of the country. The Turkmenbashi International Seaport has turned into a transport and logistics centre and an important, convenient and reliable hub for trade and economic relations and freight transportation, a CentralAsia.news correspondent reported.
In the first six months of the year, the Türkmendeňizderýaýollary Agency fulfilled the plan by 109.7 percent. In the first half of 2023, the freight turnover of the Turkmenbashi International Seaport stood at 541.2 million tonne-kilometres; the freight turnover plan was fulfilled by 223.5 percent. The growth rate is 125.7 percent compared to 2022. During this period, 82,500 passengers were transported, which is 107.6 percent more than in the same period last year.
The transport system is an integral element of sustainable development. Turkmenistan pursues its own geopolitical and geo-economic interests that are essential to ensuring national development by using its advantageous geographical location and production potential. This contributes to increasing transnational transportation in various directions and building trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian ties among nations. Transport service exports and transit play an important role in this regard.
With the aim of fostering external trade, Turkmenistan launched the software in April 2024 that provides customs authorities with preliminary information on road transport procedures. The application ensures that enterprises, authorized guaranteeing associations and those allowed in the system send data on goods and vehicles to the relevant authorities of all the countries along the route simultaneously.
The software made it easy to cross the border, reduced the clearance time and enabled all parties to comply with the national regulations of the countries crossed in transit. Currently, the customs points in the country, including the ferry terminal of the Turkmenbashi International Seaport, receive information sent by the software. The State Customs Service of Turkmenistan confirmed that the application fully conforms to the internal regulations.
In February this year, the information about the port infrastructure of Turkmenbashi was included in the digital register of transport and logistics centres of the transnational North-South corridor. This decision was made at the second meeting of the CIS Transport Business Dialogue. The infrastructure register was made publicly available on the website of the CIS Coordination Transport Meeting.
This information allowed creating more effectively logistics routes and supply chains along the North-South corridor. Two branches of this transnational transport corridor run across Turkmenistan: across the Caspian Sea by water from Russia to the harbours in Turkmenistan and Iran, and across Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan by road and rail.
«Cutting-edge technologies were used to build the seaport, and it was very nice to know that there are ports of this level in the Caspian Sea. This is first of all. Secondly, from our point of view, the prospects for using the port to transport goods between Russia and Turkmenistan, as well as to the third countries, are more than extensive. The operation of the port will allow attracting additional freight volumes,» General Director of Russian Railways Logistics JSC Dmitry Murev said.
He noted that customers have higher demands on the quality, guarantee and reliability of deliveries, and it is therefore very important that all parameters of multimodal transport are aligned with each other. The Turkmenbashi Seaport made a very favourable impression on the guest, who expressed belief that its capabilities would be employed to develop logistics solutions for clients.
«The ships built at the shipyard of our joint stock company are used all over the world; Turkmenistan has two of them. For example, the Rovach 126-passenger ship was delivered to the country in August 2019. The ship is currently sailing in the Caspian Sea. For several years now we have been cooperating fruitfully with the Balkan shipbuilding and repair plant that is part of the port infrastructure,» General Director of Ak Bars Shipbuilding Corporation JSC Renat Mistakhov said.
Currently, Asia-Europe trade is one of the world’s largest markets. This attracts transregional freight flows into the transport network of Turkmenistan. This prospect allows us to have no doubt that the country will receive great economic benefits from the operation of the Turkmenbashi International Seaport.
