The first motor convoy with export cargo on the new established Tashkent-Andijan-Osh-Irkeshtam-Kashgar transport corridor will depart on February 25, the Ministry of Foreign Trade said in a statement.

Products of Uzbek exporters will be delivered by vehicles of JV Silk Road International, which was set up on February 5. Upon arrival in Kashgar, the convoy will depart on the return route with imported products.

A test car run of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China trucks was organized from October 30 to November 3 along the route, with total length of 920 km and which was crossed in 31 hours.

The average speed of the convoy was about 50-60 km/h. The passage of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border (Dustlik post) took about 1.5 hours and the Kyrgyz-Chinese border (Irkeshtam) - about 2 hours.

The road passing through Sary-Tash township and Irkeshtam pass in Kyrgyzstan is the shortest automobile route from the Ferghana Valley to China.

This route showed that the road surface along the entire route crossing Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China meets the standards for movement of cargo vehicles, the deputy chief of the Uzbek Agency of Automobile and River Transport Shalim Shavahabov said at a press conference.

About 100 thousand tons of export-import cargoes are scheduled to be transported along the new corridor by the end of this year, with advance applications filed for transportation of goods for three months in the amount of 27 thousand tons already. These are textile, leather and agricultural goods to be exported, as well as electrical, engineering and other goods to be imported.

Interest to the new route is due, first of all, to its shorter delivery period. If before cargo was shipped from Uzbekistan to China in 8-10 days, now the new route takes only 2 days. If necessary, urgent cargo can be delivered within 24 hours, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade Sahib Saifnazarov said.

Flexible and transparent system of tariffs allows to save from 300 to 500 US dollars for the delivery of each batch, which, on the whole, allows cutting expenses by about $ 2.5 million per year and will boost products competitiveness.

A multimodal transport and logistics center has been built on the terminal of Akhtachi station for Uzbek consignors and consignees in the Andijan province which will allow cargo to be transported from all provinces of the country to Andijan by rail and then to China by road.

The construction of the new Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China railway will make it possible to reduce the distance in comparison with the existing corridors by almost 1,000 km.

The Afghan partners are also interested in the new auto corridor to transport goods by rail from Mazar-i-Sharif to Andijan and further to China. With the construction of the new Mazar-e-Sharif-Herat railway (Trans-Afghan corridor), the Trans-Continental transport corridor China-Central Asia-South Asia-Middle East will be completed.

It should be noted that the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China automobile corridor was initiated by the Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev during his visit to China in May 2017.