Thursday, November 16 2017 17:22

ArmInfo. The Minister of  Transport, Communications and Information Technologies of Armenia  Vahan Martirosyan discussed with the Ambassador of China to Armenia  Tian Erlong the ways of expanding cooperation between the countries  in the sphere of transport, communications, road construction and  telecommunications.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Transport of  Armenia, an exchange of views took place on the restoration of the  "Silk Road", which is of national importance for China.

The parties also turned to the works carried out by the Chinese  company Sinohydro Corp. in the Talin-Landjik and Landjik-Gyumri  sections within the framework of the investment program for the  construction of the North-South transport corridor.

The concept implies not only the construction and development of  transport and logistics infrastructure, a giant free trade zone, but  also a unique financial system uniting regional development banks,  creating conditions for targeted capital flows and providing  settlements in national currencies, primarily in RMB. To implement  the New Silk Road project, Beijing established a $ 40 billion Silk  Road Fund, as well as a $ 100 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment  Bank (ABII).

The project to create a transport corridor "North-South" with a total  length of 556 km, will provide access to the Black Sea and European  countries through the territory of Armenia  (Meghri-Kapan-Goris-Yerevan- Ashtarak-Gyumri-Bavra) and Georgia. The  $ 1 billion investment program is aimed at contraction of the  connection between the north (the border with Georgia) and southern  Armenia (the border with Iran) via transport communications and  access to world markets. As the authorities of Armenia expect, the  program will allow the country in the future to mitigate the  consequences of the blockade by Azerbaijan and Turkey, to play the  role of a transit state in the freight transportation of the  countries of the region, and also to join the Black Sea ring highway.