World Bank highlights role of Georgia, regional railways in Middle Corridor development

European and Central Asian countries can accelerate economic growth, create jobs, and boost private investment by developing and improving connectivity along a major trade route linking East Asia, Central Asia, the South Caucasus, Turkey, and the rest of Europe, according to a new World Bank Group report.

Titled World-Class Trade and Logistics Along the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor, the report says strategic investments in the developing Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor (TCTC), also known as the Middle Corridor, could more than triple trade volumes along the route by 2040, halve transit times, increase GDP by 3.3%, and create an additional two million jobs.

According to the report, if countries combine infrastructure investments with reforms aimed at improving trade and transport efficiency, freight volumes along the corridor could increase fourfold by 2040, while transit times could be reduced by two-thirds.

These gains could be achieved by reducing transport bottlenecks, improving supply-chain reliability, and expanding access to markets across the nine countries along the corridor - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

For the nearly 200 million people living in these countries, the improvements would also mean better access to markets and other economic opportunities.

“Railway state-owned enterprises along the TCTC differ significantly in scale, performance, and institutional development, directly affecting corridor outcomes. On the one hand, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy operates a large, high-density network (approximately 16,000 kilometers; approximately 303 million tons), which serves as the backbone of the corridor, benefits from relatively stronger assets, and is making progress toward commercial financing”, the report said.

“On the other hand, smaller but strategically critical systems, such as Georgian Railway (approximately 1,400 kilometers; 13.7 million tons), despite their modest size, stand out for their high utilization rates and relatively advanced governance and financial practices. Medium-sized systems, including Uzbekistan Railways (approximately 6,100 kilometers; 103 million tons) and Azerbaijan Railways (approximately 2,100 kilometers; 18.5 million tons), play important regional connectivity roles but remain in transition, with ongoing reforms to governance, tariffs, and operational systems”, the report added.

The World Bank noted that, by contrast, Turkish State Railways, despite having a network of approximately 13,000 kilometers, carries a relatively small volume of freight - approximately 26 million tons - reflecting a system focused primarily on passenger services and significant untapped freight potential, despite ongoing reforms such as the functional separation of the sector.

“This diversity underscores that corridor performance is shaped not only by infrastructure but also by the institutional and operational capacity of these systems, with outcomes often constrained by weaker segments and uneven progress in reforms”, the report concluded.