Azerbaijan eyes to transit bulky goods purchased online [UPDATE]

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerpost, Azerbaijan's government-backed postal service provider, is negotiating with the express mail services of China, South Korea and Singapore for the organization of transit through Azerbaijan of large-sized goods purchased on electronic trading platforms.

Based on the previously signed contract between the express mail service (EMS) Azerexpresspost and the mail of Estonia, the EMS mail delivered from Germany to Azerbaijan is redirected to Russia through Azerpost.

“In the first half-year, the Azerpost transit center processed and sent to Russia 5,567 units of large-size EMS shipments with a total weight of 104,584 kilograms," the company told Trend on October 27. "The average weight of each shipment was about 19 kilograms. In the near future, transit of even larger mail parcels will be organized through Azerbaijan to other countries.”

Azerpost noted that the formation of regional and international transport corridors in the country and the transformation of Baku into a major transport and logistics center have created new opportunities for postal transportation of goods purchased through electronic trading platforms.

“The project of the international e-trade implemented by the postal operator is aimed at forming it as a regional transit postal center. To this purpose, Azerpost cooperates with Silk Way, which has wide capabilities in air transportation," the company said.

The project mainly delivers in the country goods ordered from China. Azerpost is engaged in their processing and sending to other countries.

Last year, more than 480,000 mails were delivered from Hong Kong to Azerbaijan, which were redirected to other countries. The vast majority of incoming mail was forwarded to Russia.

“As a result of the project expansion, the number of countries connected to the transit postal center created in the country has reached 17," Azerpost said.

In the first half-year, as many as 2,490,388 mails were sent to the U.S., Germany, Austria, Belarus, Great Britain, Czech Republic, France, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Azerpost, the national post operator, was established in 1999 and received the status of national postal operator in 2004. The company mostly implements such important functions like offering quality and affordable postal, postal-financial services, transit of mail to other countries, and other services to support daily activities of the population.