OREANDA-NEWS. April 26, 2010. Akif Mustafayev, TRACECA national secretary on behalf of Azerbaijan, says that materials are being prepared on the Tbilisi first session of the Azerbaijan-Georgia workgroup for submission to the government and relevant governmental agencies of Azerbaijan.

“Having conducted analysis of cargo carriages through territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia from Europe to Asia and back, the Group considered three blocks of issues – coordination of actions aimed at improving transport corridor operation, solution of matters on simplification of customs and other procedures when crossing borders, and joint initiative and preparation of projects within TRACECA,” Mustafayev said.

Earlier the session of this group had been postponed for several times, and on 26 January Baku hosted the first session of the Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan workgroup. The Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan workgroup conducted a session in Baku on 27 January.

Originally the Baku sessions of the Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan-Georgia and Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan workgroups (each of the groups were expected to be in session for one day) were scheduled for 25, 26, and 27 January.

Such workgroups are expected to allow revealing clearly problems (they have been examined thoroughly by the project contractor) and define measures on their removal.

At the first regional seminar held earlier in Baku the contractors presented overview of the current condition of affairs, including problems (tariffs, order of border crossing, etc), assessment of prospects.

For the purpose of raising TRACECA competitiveness it was coordinated a further program of actions, including simplification of the order of border crossing, tariff regulation, holding of seminars for TRACECA national secretaries, ministries, operators, and formation and activities of TRACECA participating countries’ bilateral workgroups. As a result, another regional seminar on the project can be organized in 2010.

The first seminar was preceded by national seminars.

The regional seminar involved TRACECA national secretaries, deputy transport ministers, state and independent experts, reps of the European Commission.

Within the project it is expected to assist to development of trade and transport in corridor Europe - Black Sea region – Caucasus – Central Asia through improvement of interaction of networks and multimodal transport in the Black and Caspian Seas. The project consultant is French company Egis BCEOM. The project duration is two years.

The project covers Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.