EU commits €10 billion to the Trans-Caspian corridor under Global Gateway
At the January 2024 Investors Forum in Brussels, European and international institutions pledged €10 billion to cut Europe–Central Asia transit to around 15 days.
At the Global Gateway Investors Forum held in Brussels on 29–30 January 2024, the European Commission announced that European and international financial institutions had pledged €10 billion to develop the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor — the Middle Corridor — connecting Europe and Central Asia.
The headline ambition is speed and reliability: transforming the route into an efficient multimodal link that can move goods between Europe and Central Asia in around 15 days.
What the money targets
The pledge builds on a 2023 study led by the European Commission and carried out by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which identified 33 hard-infrastructure needs and 7 soft-connectivity actions — from port and rail capacity to customs and border digitalisation — required to make the corridor competitive.
What it means on the ground
For carriers operating in Georgia, sustained investment in ports, border crossings and digital customs is the difference between a corridor that works on paper and one that works in practice. Faster, more predictable border processing directly improves road-freight transit times on the Georgian legs of the route.
Sources
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