30 января 2024 — 16:00
European and international financial institutions will allocate 10 billion euros for investments in the project of a transport corridor between Europe and Central Asia. This was announced by Deputy Chairman of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis at the investor forum in Brussels, Interfax reports.
"I am pleased to see that the international partners present today have committed to provide investments in the amount of 10 billion euros for the development of sustainable transport links in Central Asia, including new commitments by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) in the amount of 1.5 billion euros," he said.
The Global Gateway project Investor Forum is attended by high-ranking representatives of the European Commission, EU countries, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Turkey. Among the participants are the states of the "Big Seven", financial institutions and private companies.
International observers regard the Global Gateway as a European alternative to the Chinese One Belt, One Road project. The European Commission's press release explicitly states that the events in Ukraine dictated "the urgency of finding alternative, reliable and effective trade routes between Europe and Asia that will not pass through Russia."
The participants of the two-day forum will discuss the necessary investments to transform the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor into a modern, multimodal and efficient route connecting Europe via the Black Sea and the South Caucasus with Central Asia in 15 days.
The discussion is based on the study "Sustainable Transport links between Europe and Central Asia", which was conducted last summer under the auspices of the European Commission by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). It identified 33 priority goals in physical infrastructure and 7 key actions in the field of communication connectivity, the implementation of which will increase the efficiency and economic attractiveness of the trans-Caspian transport route. They were presented at the 2nd EU-Central Asia Economic Forum, which was held in May 2023 in Alma-Ata.