The participants in the international regional business forum “1520 Strategic Partnership: the Caucasus Region”, which is taking place in Baku, have confirmed the potential of the "North–South" corridor and the need for further development of its transit potential.

The participants in the event began work with the opening of the forum, at which representatives of the Azerbaijan side described the work which is currently being done in the republic in the field of the transport sector. They noted the work on creating a Baku – Tbilisi – Kars rail link, completion of which is planned for 2012. Also Ziya Mamedov, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Transport, and Arif Askerov, head of Azerbaijan Railways, noted their interest in the development of the "North–South" project and the need for cooperation between the parties in the area of developing this project.

The welcoming speeches were followed by a plenary session on "Productive cooperation in the Caucasus: realising the transit potential of the ‘North–South’ corridor". As Arif Askerov, head of Azerbaijan Railways, stated in the plenary session, the preferred option is to implement the corridor through the territory of Azerbaijan, as this route is shorter and involves crossing just one transit country which already has a railway infrastructure in place. According to forecasts, the volume of freight carried through the corridor could reach 25 million tonnes per year. Moreover, the project to link the railways of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran envisages investment to the tune of more than 300 million dollars, the greater part of which would be spent on work on Iran’s territory.

The potential of the project, in particular its development on the Russia – Azerbaijan – Iran route, was noted on the part of Vadim Morozov, First Vice President of Russian Railways. According to him, this project is of great significance, in so far as the volume of freight transportation through the corridor is forecast at a level of 19 million tonnes by 2030, and the freight potential for this exists in the countries of the Persian Gulf and Asia.

"A comparative analysis of the delivery times for freight from Europe and Russia to the countries of the Persian Gulf and South Asia shows that the advantage of direct rail routes using the new Qazvin – Rasht – Astara railway line could be up to 10 days," Vadim Morozov told the plenary session. "According to the technical and economic case, the capacity of the new Rasht – Astara (Iran) – Astara (Azerbaijan) railway line could reach 9 million tonnes in 2015 and more than 19 million tonnes by 2030. The total scale of investment in construction of this line is assessed at 408 million dollars."

The representatives of Kazakhstan, Georgian and Latvian railways told the participants in the plenary session about projects being implemented in their countries and the prospects of developing a transit corridor for the countries of Asia as well as the European market.

The participants in the plenary session also noted the need to simplify border crossings in the process of operating passenger and freight transportation, which is an important step on the road of developing cooperation in the field of railway transport.

A vivid example of the cooperation between the railways of Azerbaijan and Russia was the signing of a memorandum between Azerbaijan Railways and Rusagrotrans on cooperation and partnership in organising and operating transportation of grain freight. The memorandum was signed by Konstantin Zasov, the head of Rusagrotrans, and Alirza Suleimanov, first deputy chairman of Azerbaijan Railways. The cooperation under the terms of the memorandum assumes an increase in grain transportation of 1.5 tonnes per year.

The memorandum was signed in the presence of Arif Askerov, Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways, and Vadim Morozov, First Vice President of Russian Railways.

After the signing of the memorandum the participants in the ceremony took part in a press conference with representatives of local and foreign mass media.