Increased use of digital solutions developed by UNECE’s subsidiary, intergovernmental body – the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) – can enhance the sustainability and resilience of supply chains and strengthen global connectivity. Data mapping and alignment to the UN/CEFACT standards allow for a common semantic foundation for data exchange among the different port or railway information systems and other modes of transport.

The benefits include reducing economic costs, enabling seamless data interchange among modes of transport and sectors in the supply chain, using the UN standards as a common semantic foundation for cross-border, multimodal, and cross-sectoral interoperability, simplification and automation of business processes, and raising business competitiveness.

As part of the implementation the roadmap for digitalization of the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor, which was adopted by States participating in the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) in November 2023, UNECE recently organized two capacity-building seminars in Turkmenistan to streamline efforts to digitalize transport and supply chains along the Trans-Caspian and other corridors in the region. 

In 2023, the total cargo transported via the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor increased by 86% in 2023, reaching 2.8 million tons, up from 1.5 million tons in 2022. According to a World Bank study, with targeted investments and policy reforms, the Middle Corridor has the potential to triple its trade volumes by 2030, reaching 11 million tons, and to reduce travel time by half. ​

The first seminar focused on port-to-port data exchange in the Trans-Caspian Corridor, notably in Baku-Aktau and Baku-Turkmenbashi, to align this data exchange to the UN/CEFACT standards and Multimodal Transport Reference Data Model (MMT RDM). Baku and Aktau ports are already exchanging data on cargo, and the ports of Baku and Turkmenbashi have an agreement to exchange data.                       

The seminar participants requested UNECE, the Governments of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan and the development partners to support the effort to align the data exchange to the UN/CEFACT standards in the context of the Trans-Caspian Digitalization Roadmap. In addition to supporting the digital exchange of information among the Caspian ports of Baku, Aktau, and Turkmenbashi, one of the recommendations of the seminar was to invite other ports along the Trans-Caspian Corridor – Kuryk, Poti, Batumi, Odessa, Constanta, Varna, Burgas, and Istanbul – to align to the UN/CEFACT standards.

Under the SPECA Chairmanship of Turkmenistan in 2025, and with participation of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), the Organisation for Cooperation of Railways (OSJD), the railway agencies of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and Eurasian Development Bank, the second seminar focused on a pilot project to develop and use an electronic equivalent of the SMGS railway consignment note along the Kazakhstan–Turkmenistan–Iran (KTI) railway corridor.

This pilot project would serve as a foundation for further development of a digital corridor along the KTI railway corridor, using the semantic standards and Multimodal Transport Reference Data Model (MMT RDM) of UN/CEFACT as a key reference for intermodal interoperability of data and document exchange.

Representatives of UNECE, UNESCAP, and the railway agencies of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran discussed the possibilities for such a project in cooperation with the three governments and various stakeholders, including ECO, the Permanent Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Commission of the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Central Asia (PS IGC TRACECA) and other development partners.

The participants recommended that the railways and business community of the KTI and SPECA participating States promote the digital transformation of documents accompanying goods in the KTI corridor, in alignment with the UN/CEFACT standards to digitalize railway documents accompanying goods.

Finally, the 20th session of the SPECA Working Group on Trade held in Ashgabat reviewed national and regional plans and strategies of the SPECA participating States for trade facilitation and sustainable development.

The participants aimed to identify priority actions on which the SPECA Working Group on Trade could work in the coming several years and focused on deliverables, such as: 

• Collaboration among SPECA participating States in the WTO process
• Progress in the implementation of the SPECA Trade Facilitation Strategy and related roadmap
• Progress in the implementation of the Principles for Sustainable Trade in the subregion
• Studies and recommendations on regulatory and procedural non-tariff barriers to trade, and
• Digitalization of data and document exchange in multimodal transport and trade using UN standards.