Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an executive order on establishing Transit Shipping Coordination Council. The council will be responsible for implementing a single window system related to the shipping of goods through railway, sea transport, sea ports and sea terminals.

Azerbaijan has vast potential in maritime transport in the Caspian Sea. Baku is poised to become a major regional transportation and communications hub for the Trans-Caucasus and Central Asian republics. The TRACECA Program was launched by the European Union in 1993, and encourages the development of a transport corridor on an East-West axis from Central Asia through the Caucasus, across the Black Sea, to Europe. The corridor includes all forms of transport.

The new Baku International Sea Trade Port ferry terminal in Alat, 40 miles south of Baku, was launched in 2014, while the Baku Sea Port has begun upgrades and will be ready for commissioning later this year. The estimated transshipment volume for the new port complex is up to 10 million tons of cargo and 40,000 TEU containers at the first stage, up to 17 million tons of cargo and 150,000 TEU containers at the second stage, and up to 25 million tons of cargo, and 1 million TEU containers at the third stage of the project. In addition to the logistics center, a free economic zone is planned for this area in the future.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed after an agreement was signed by the governments of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. The project is being financed by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan and slated for completion this year. At its initial stage, the corridor will be able to accommodate one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo, with the aim of ultimately reaching 17 million tons of cargo per year.

Historically, Azerbaijan has hosted various trade routes, including the world famous Great Silk Road. Today, the country is targeting a turn to becoming a transportation hub of the region due to its favorable geographic position. At present, Azerbaijan plays a leading role not only in large-scale projects focused on the transportation of oil and gas, but transport as well, which are designed to create a global transport corridor from China to Europe.

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