Trasica Rail Corridor and Commercial Relations of Iran and Central Asia

Trasica Corridor is one of the most important corridors connecting East Asia to Europe. This article seeks to investigate the effect of Iran's geo-economic position on the use of the Thracian rail corridor for the convergence of Iran with four Central Asian countries. In this study, the convergence of Iran with these four Central Asian countries Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for the years 2015 to 2020 has been investigated. The results of Grobel and Lloyd index of Iran's trade with Kazakhstan (0.565) showed that Iran has the most intra-industry trade with Kazakhstan. After that was the country of Uzbekistan, whose index of industrial trade with Iran was obtained (0.343). The results of Grobel and Lloyd's index for the two countries of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (0.067 and 0.062) indicate that these two mentioned countries had the least intra-industry trade with Iran. The above findings clearly show that Iran's economy can make good use of the Trasica Corridor rail route for the transfer of goods and economic integration with Central Asian countries. In order to encourage businessmen to make more use of the Trasica rail corridor in order for Iran's economy to reach the markets of Central Asia, it is suggested that bilateral agreements be concluded with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to reduce bilateral tariffs for businessmen of both sides, and a joint commission on Monitor the implementation of these obligations.