Ever since the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway in the South Caucasus came online in October, the Azerbaijani government has been leading business delegations abroad to tout its potential and help build a reputation for the Caspian country as a hub for global commerce and trade.
Officials in Baku are particularly interested in attracting investment from China, which has launched a global trade development project called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), formerly known as One Belt, One Road (OBOR), and is meant to unite land shipping routes and seaports, with the expectation that shipping across Eurasia will be significantly reduced and speed up global commerce.
"Azerbaijan is keen on China's support for the Trans-Caspian international transport route, as well as in attracting Chinese companies to the Alat free economic zone," Azerbaijan’s economy minister Shahin Mustafayev told a meeting with the Chinese transportation minister Li Xiaopeng in Beijing on Monday, according to Sputnik.
Azerbaijanis are convinced that shipping cargo from East Asia to Europe can be reduced to just two weeks if the BTK railway is leveraged, cutting the time from what now takes a month by railways and 40 to 45 days by sea.
The BTK railway connects Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey via 826 kilometers (513 miles) of railway track that replace an older route, known as the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway, which had cut through Armenia and has been abandoned since the 1990s.
But officials see greater potential for the Caspian region for global commerce beyond what is a new railway line. Mustafayev said that Baku is interested in seeing the Trans-Caspian Corridor become an integral part to China’s BRI.
“Azerbaijan wants that China to view the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor as part of China's One Belt One Road initiative,” Minister Shahin Mustafayev said, according to Azertag.
With six international airports in cities such as Baku, Ganja, Nakhchivan, Lankaran, Qabala and Zaqatala, and home to the largest merchant fleet in the Caspian Sea, officials in Baku are hoping to focus Beijing’s attention on what they believe to be an opportunity to help develop an economy that is reliant on extracting fossil fuels, namely oil and gas.
Azerbaijan also boasts cross-country roads, such as the 500 km (311 mi) East-West highway that links Baku, on the Caspian coast in the east, to the Georgian border in the west; as well as the North-South highway that runs from the Russian border in the north to the Iranian border, via Baku, in the south. The east-west highway, which is about 500 kilometers long, is one of Azerbaijan’s main transport links to the western region and for external trade.
According to reports, Chinese Transport Minister Li Xiaopeng told the Azerbaijani delegation that the Chinese government will study Azerbaijan’s proposals for freight transit to pass through Azerbaijan and goods move from east to west.
China ranks fourth among Azerbaijan’s foreign economic partners in terms of trade volume. According to Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee, by the end of 2017 trade turnover between Azerbaijan and China totaled $1.3 billion, or 5.75 percent Azerbaijan’s commodity turnover.
At the same time, exports of Azerbaijani goods to China amounted to $434 million, or 3.21 percent of total exports, while imports of Chinese products to Azerbaijan reached $855 million, or 9.7 percent of total imports.
“There is a good potential for export of agricultural and processing industry products from Azerbaijan to China,” Mustafayev said at Monday’s meeting, asking for China’s support to obtain a series of licenses.
"The potential for building up Azerbaijani-Chinese relations is very high and covers the participation of Chinese companies in industrial parks and areas being created in Azerbaijan, agro-parks, as well as cooperation in such fields as information technology, tourism, joint production of food products," he said. Currently more than 100 companies with Chinese capital operate in Azerbaijan.
During the visit, the Azerbaijan Railways Company and the China Road and Bridge Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding, which is expected to help kick-start commercial projects involving the railways.
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