Page 53 - GEORptJul22

Kazakhstan plans to transport 2-3mn tonnes of oil through Georgia in 2022
25-km-long truck jams reported on Turkey-Georgia border as freight companies tell drivers to avoid Ukraine
according to statistics of the Iranian Airports and Air Navigation Company,” added Silk Road Briefing.
Some 4,100 tonnes of cargo were transported internationally through Iranian airports in that month compared to 1,800 tonnes in the same month last year. That increase was also reflected in passenger traffic. International passenger transits through Iranian airports climbed fourfold to 202,000 for the same period versus 48,700 a year earlier.
Iran’s airports are undergoing significant upgrades. Both Chinese and Russian contractors have been retained to develop 116 Iranian airports in stages over the next two decades.
Kazakhstan plans to transport two to three million tonnes of oil through the Georgian corridor in 2022, with further increase in the figure planned for the upcoming years, the economy ministry announced on April 26. During a meeting between Georgian Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili and a Kazakh delegation led by Yerzhan Kazikhan, the Special Representative of the President of Kazakhstan, the sides agreed to use joint efforts to attract and serve the transportation of goods in the transport corridors through Georgia and Kazakhstan “in the long run”, the ministry said.
Trade, economic, transport and logistical questions between the two countries were also discussed at the meeting, where both sides noted economic trends between Georgia and Kazakhstan were characterised by a growing dynamic, with potential for “much greater” results.
The readiness of Georgia's transport infrastructure for facilitating transportation of cargo to Kazakhstan and Central Asia was also noted at the meeting. Kairbek Uskenbayev, Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development of Kazakhstan, announced on March 29 that export and transit cargos from Kazakhstan would be redirected to the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route crossing Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey due to the war in Ukraine and sanctions imposed against Russia.
Truck jams stretching around 25 kilometres have reportedly built up on Turkey’s Sarp border crossing with Georgia as a result of international freight companies directing their drivers to take diversions that avoid conflict-torn Ukraine.
Drivers hoping to deliver their goods to destinations via the South Caucasus countries of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are having to wait days to get over the border, according to a report by daily Hurriyet.
Atif Kesim, head of the local chamber of commerce and industry in the Arhavi district of Artvin in Turkey, was quoted as saying: “I travelled all the way from
53 GEORGIA Country Report July 2022 www.intellinews.com