Baku International Sea Trade Port is becoming a hub, Yujin Si, the port's chief operational administrator, said during his speech at the event ‘Re-evaluation of Azerbaijan-China Relations: The Way Forward’, Report informs.
According to him, the Port of Baku is working at full capacity: "The first stage of the construction of the Port of Baku was completed in 2018, and thus, the loading volume of the port is 15 million tons per year, including 100,000 TEU containers. Within the framework of the second phase, it is planned to increase the total handling capacity of the port from 15 million tons to 25 million tons and from 100,000 TEU to 500,000 TEU containers.
He added that the preparation of the master plan for the second phase of the port has already been completed.
Speaking at the event, Kang Jie, Assistant Research Fellow at the Department for European-Central Asian Studies of the China Institute of International Studies, said that the Middle Corridor connects not only the Western and Eastern Corridors but also the Northern and Southern Corridors.
Jie noted that this project by no means weakens countries but serves to strengthen regional cooperation: "The Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor and the ‘One Belt, One Road’ project help to find new types of industrialization in Western countries. This creates conditions for the construction of new fiber optic lines by Azerbaijan to the Trans-Caspian countries. With the construction of these lines, Azerbaijan will most likely become a very important information center. This will help to build a sufficient digital infrastructure in Azerbaijan."