DUSHANBE, June 17, 2009, Asia-Plus  - Tajikistan has signed an agreement on development of the multimodal transport within the framework of the TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) project, according to press service of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC).

Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, Jumakhon Zuhurov, attended the seventh meeting of the TRACECA intergovernmental commission that was held in Kyrgyzstan’s resort zone, Issyk Kul, on June 15-16.  The meeting discussed a broad range of issues, including the one concerning reforms in the TRACECA institutions.

Zuhurov signed the multimodal transport development agreement on behalf of Tajikistan, the press service said.  The agreement regulates relations between transport organizations, multimodal transport operators, freight forwarders and freight recipients, other physical and legal entities that render multimodal services and act on behalf of freight owner.

The concept of international multimodal transport covers the door-to-door movement of goods under the responsibility of a single transport operator.

The main objective of the TRACECA project is to connect Central Asia with Europe by a continuous unbroken railway.  When TRACECA is completed, a continuous railway line will follow part of the ancient Silk Road from the Chinese port of Lianyungang on the Yellow Sea to the Georgian ports of Poti and Batumi on the Black Sea and then on into western Europe.

A conference marking the start of the TRACECA project between the EU member states, the central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Southern Caucasus states of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia was held in Brussels in May 1993.

As a first step, the conference proposed creating an unbroken rail corridor from western Europe to China via the Black Sea, South Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Central Asia to be financed as a global EU strategy with four goals: strengthening the political and economical sovereignty of CIS countries in the TRACECA region to enable their effective participation in the world economy; supporting regional cooperation between TRACECA countries; promoting regional investment by international and private financial resources; and linking the Eurasian transport corridor with European and world transport systems.

In particular, TRACECA declared its intent to create new transport demand that will generate new profit centers for all interested counties.  The first investors to join the project were the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank (WB). The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) joined later. Japan is participating in the project implementation through the ADB.

The TRACECA Multilateral Agreement was signed in Baku in 1998 and composes Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Armenia.