In a major development, the first truck carrying commodities from Pakistan has reached Turkey, days after the commencement of Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) operations.
The development was shared by Advisor to Prime Minister on Investment Abdul Razak Dawood through his Twitter handle on Tuesday. “I am very pleased to announce that under the TIR treaty, the first NLC truck transporting commodities from Pakistan reached Turkey via Iran,” he tweeted. The advisor informed that the NLC truck left Karachi on September 28 and reached Istanbul on October 7, covering a distance of 5,300 kilometres. “This is the beginning of a new era of connectivity under the Ministry of Commerce regional connectivity policy,” said Dawood, urging exporters to avail the facility as it “will save cost and time as well.”
The TIR Convention is an international customs transit system that facilitates trade by expediting border checks between countries. Pakistan entered the TIR Convention in 2016 and was declared as a ‘TIR Operational Country’ by the IRU (International Road Transport Union) in April 2018.
A day earlier, the National Logistics Cell (NLC) spokesperson said, “Our trucks carrying containers loaded with goods reached Istanbul and Baku via Tehran on Oct 7 night under the TIR admission. The vehicles had moved from Karachi on Sept 27 and completed the journey of over 5,300 kilometres within 10 days.” The NLC’s first road movement received an overwhelming response from the governments and business communities of both Turkey and Azerbaijan. And the first commercial run was made possible with all-out support of Iran, the spokesman added.
Special ceremonies were held at Istanbul and Baku to mark establishment of the road connectivity between the brotherly countries in the region.
