Countries in Europe and Central Asia can achieve accelerated economic development, employment growth, and private capital attraction by modernizing and deeply integrating the key trade corridor connecting East Asia, Central Asia, the South Caucasus, Türkiye, and the rest of Europe, according to a World Bank update titled "Integration: World-Class Trade Logistics along the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor," Report informs.
As noted, targeted investments in the emerging Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the Middle Corridor, can more than triple trade flows along this route, halve transit times, boost GDP by 3.3%, and generate 2 million new jobs by 2040.
The report also emphasizes that when infrastructure investments are combined with reforms aimed at improving trade and transport efficiency, cargo flows through the corridor could quadruple and transit times could be reduced by two-thirds by 2040.
According to the update, such results will be achievable by eliminating transport bottlenecks, enhancing supply chain reliability, and expanding market access across nine countries along the corridor: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Although Armenia is currently not among the TITR host countries, it is assumed that it will establish direct physical links with the route in the 2030s. Given that the report's analytical horizon covers the period 2023–2040, Armenia is included in the calculations, the World Bank notes.