More than 15 million tons will be annually transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway in the future, Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov said, Eurasia Diary reports citing Trend News Agency.

Jabbarov made the remark at the event in Baku dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the signing the Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for Development of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia Corridor and the 14th meeting of the Permanent Secretariat of the TRACECA Intergovernmental Commission (IGC).

The minister stressed that BTK plays and will play a big role in expanding the ties among the countries.

"Presently, six million tons of cargo and one million people are transported by this railway," Jabbarov added.

The international conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for the Development of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Corridor and the 14th meeting of the Permanent Secretariat of the TRACECA Intergovernmental Commission is being held in Baku on Dec. 6.

The official representatives of TRACECA member-states and observer countries, representatives of international organizations are participating in the event.

TRACECA is a program of international cooperation between the EU and the partner countries in the creation of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor. In organizational terms, TRACECA is an intergovernmental commission.

TRACECA program was established in 1993 on the basis of the Brussels Declaration with the participation of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Moldova, Mongolia and Ukraine joined the program later; Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria in 2000, Iran in 2009.