EBRD urges Middle Corridor shift to economic corridor

BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 21. The Middle Corridor should be turned from a transport route into an economic corridor contributing to attracting investments, creating jobs, and developing the private sector in the region, Head of the Baku Office of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Nataly Mouravidze, said at the EU-Azerbaijan Business Forum in Baku on Wednesday, Trend’s correspondent reports from the event.

According to her, the opportunities that the Middle Corridor opens up go far beyond the transport sector.

“The key challenge is to use transport connectivity to attract investment, create jobs, and develop the private sector throughout the region.

Infrastructure development remains important, but existing bottlenecks must be addressed to ensure the corridor operates as a cohesive, efficient, predictable, and commercially viable system.

The business doesn't consider individual sections of the route. Reliability, predictability, and costs throughout the entire journey are important to him,” noted Mouravidze.

She identified three main priorities for the development of the Middle Corridor. The first is targeted investment to address key bottlenecks, including ports, railways, maritime infrastructure, and intermodal facilities.

She identified digitalization and coordination as the second priority. Significant gains in efficiency can be achieved through the harmonization of procedures, improved information exchange, greater transparency, and closer coordination among all stakeholders.

The third focus area should be the development of economic activity beyond the transport sector.

"Success shouldn’t be measured solely by the number of containers transported along the corridor or through the region. It must be evaluated based on the volume of investment, the number of jobs, and the level of business activity that the corridor generates," she emphasized.

Mouravidze pointed out that the Middle Corridor creates opportunities for developing logistics services, establishing warehousing capacity, expanding processing and manufacturing, and launching export-oriented enterprises. Such ventures contribute to local value creation and the deeper integration of the region into global markets.

According to her, there is already a political commitment within the region to developing the corridor, with the primary focus now increasingly shifting toward the implementation of established plans.