MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

Chaired by the Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Guram Guramishvili, a meeting of TRACECA national secretaries was held in Tbilisi. The meeting was attended by the heads of transport agencies from member countries of the organization. The Secretary-General of TRACECA, Asset Assavbayev, also participated in the meeting.

In his welcoming speech, Guram Guramishvili emphasized the importance of the TRACECA and stated that the Europe-Caucasus-Asia Transport Corridor is an important platform for improving transport, trade, and economic relations between its member states.

As the Deputy Minister noted, the member states of the corridor pay special attention to the development of transport and logistics infrastructure, which contributes to increasing the corridor's competitiveness. He also highlighted ongoing projects in Georgia, such as the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, railway modernization, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, the East-West highway, and others. According to Guram Guramishvili, the development of these projects will open up even more opportunities to strengthen our country's transit and logistics function, which will also contribute to increasing freight traffic in the TRACECA corridor.

During the meeting, the parties discussed a number of issues on the TRACECA agenda, including the improvement of transport links and border crossings within the corridor. Particular emphasis was placed on the digitalization of freight operations for both rail and road transport within the corridor.

The national secretaries of the member countries also agreed to continue active work to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor.

It should be noted that in the first 10 months of 2024, compared to the same period of the previous year, 23,5 million tons of cargo were transported by land in international transit mode in Georgia, which is 3,5% more compared to the same period of 2023. As for Georgian seaports, they handled a total of 11,1 million tons of cargo during the reporting period, which is 8,0% more compared to the same period of the previous year. It should be noted that in the January-October period of 2024, the number of containers transported through Georgia from/to China via the Middle Corridor amounted to 10 848 TEU, which is 13 times more compared to the same period of 2023.