As billions of dollars are poured into railways, highways and ports across Central Asia and the Caucasus, the official responsible for coordinating much of the Middle Corridor says the route's biggest challenge is no longer physical infrastructure, but governance.

Jasurbek Choriyev, secretary general of TRACECA, the intergovernmental transport organisation that links Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, argues that the next phase of development along the rapidly growing trade route will depend less on concrete and steel than on whether countries can agree to share data, harmonise customs procedures and recognise common transport documents.

"First of all, this is digitisation," Choriyev told IntelliNews on the sidelines of the Tashkent International Investment Forum (TIIF). "This is the introduction of a single document, which will be recognized in all these countries and states."

The comments come as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, better known as the Middle Corridor, experiences a surge in traffic driven by shifting global trade patterns, Russia's isolation from Western markets and growing efforts by Central Asian governments to diversify export routes.

According to figures presented at a TIIF panel dedicated to the corridor, cargo volumes have risen from less than one million tonnes in 2021 to around 4.5mn tonnes in 2025. Forecasts presented by international financial institutions suggest freight volumes could continue expanding rapidly over the next decade.

Yet as volumes grow, policymakers increasingly acknowledge that the corridor's future competitiveness may depend less on expanding capacity than on reducing the bureaucratic friction that still accompanies every border crossing. "The most consequential constraints towards the corridor's competitiveness have to do with its operational performance, fragmented procedures and weak coordinations," said Winnie Wang Wei, the World Bank's lead infrastructure specialist for Central Asia.

The World Bank estimates freight volumes moving through the corridor could rise from 8.8mn tonnes in 2023 to more than 32mn tonnes by 2040 if participating countries coordinate investments and operations effectively.

For Choriyev, the solution lies in creating a common digital ecosystem that treats the corridor as a single logistics network rather than a patchwork of national transport systems. "There are customs issues. Customs plays a major role," he said. "Disintegration of customs procedures and crossings of borders will not help in any way."

To address the problem, Choriyev is advocating the creation of a regional digital coordination centre that would standardise documentation, facilitate data sharing and allow customs authorities across multiple countries to work from a common platform. "Therefore, I think that the creation of a digital center would solve many issues," he said. "I suggest that this should be created in Uzbekistan."

The proposal reflects an emerging shift in thinking among governments, development banks and logistics companies operating along the route. While the first phase of the corridor's development focused on physical infrastructure, the next stage increasingly centres on operational efficiency. Several speakers at the TIIF panel echoed Choriyev's argument.

The OECD's Celeste Laporte Talamon warned that digitalisation alone would not solve the problem if countries continued developing incompatible systems. "If your electronic signature is recognised in Uzbekistan but not in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, what's the point of having an electronic signature?" she asked.

Similarly, Charlotte Adriaen, head of Central Asia at the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships, argued that future progress would depend increasingly on what policymakers describe as "soft connectivity" rather than additional infrastructure. "What is also important is really that we concentrate on the soft connectivity," she said. "This is about changing procedures."

The European Union has emerged as one of the largest supporters of the corridor through its Global Gateway initiative. Following an EBRD study identifying 33 priority infrastructure projects worth up to €19bn, Brussels has helped mobilise financing for transport links across Central Asia and the South Caucasus. But even as investment accelerates, concerns remain that fragmented governance could undermine returns. Andrew Bouffard, vice-president of Canadian infrastructure consultancy CPCS, argued that the route's success ultimately depends on predictability rather than capacity. "What shippers are looking for is predictability," he said.

Unlike the Northern Corridor through Russia, which operates largely within a single jurisdiction, the Middle Corridor requires coordination across multiple countries, railway operators, ports, shipping companies and customs authorities. That complexity is felt daily by private logistics companies.

Dave Van Den Bos, chief executive of Ahlers Logistics, said customers entering Central Asian markets often struggle with the numerous interfaces involved in moving goods across the region. "We deal not only with borders, but there are handovers, there are different physical operators touching the cargoes and there are authorities involved," he said. "Those complexities are what makes it hard today."

For logistics providers, visibility and data sharing have become almost as important as transport infrastructure itself. Companies increasingly rely on digital platforms that track cargo movements in real time and provide early warning when delays occur. At the same time, Choriyev acknowledges that physical bottlenecks have not disappeared entirely.

Uzbekistan remains one of only two double-landlocked countries in the world and faces significant constraints within its own transport network. Much of the country's freight traffic relies on the heavily used Tashkent-Samarkand railway line, which currently carries both passenger and cargo trains. "That one single railway is used for passenger and for cargo," Choriyev said. "We are already facing a lot of difficulties where the transit capacity, transit capability of the country is restricted."

The government is therefore pursuing parallel strategies: continuing to expand transport infrastructure while simultaneously trying to modernise the governance systems that underpin trade.

The ambition extends beyond simply moving cargo more efficiently. As regional competition intensifies, governments increasingly recognise that the greatest economic value may accrue not to those who own the tracks and ports, but to those who coordinate the flows moving through them.

For Uzbekistan, positioning itself as the digital nerve centre of the Middle Corridor could prove as strategically important as any railway or highway currently under construction.

"In order to switch to another system, they need political will," Choriyev said.

That political challenge may ultimately prove harder to overcome than building new infrastructure. But as the Middle Corridor enters a new phase of development, it is becoming increasingly clear that the route's future will depend less on where goods travel and more on how the countries along the route work together.