Presidents of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan inaugurated a 380-kilometer fiber-optic cable under the Caspian Sea bed.

The cable connects the Sumgait industrial city near Baku to the port of Aktau in Kazakhstan, and its data transmission capacity is 400 terabits per second.

The project enables wider data exchange among China, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Turkey, and Europe. The project is part of the so-called “Middle Corridor” transit route for connecting China to Europe via the Caspian Sea.

According to official reports, freight transit via the Middle Corridor has grown on average by 33% each year over the past five years, and it is expected to reach 5.5 million tons this year.

According to a World Bank forecast, with an additional $25 billion in investment, this figure could increase to 32 million tons by 2040 and add $58 billion (equivalent to 3.3%) to the gross domestic product of the transit countries along this route (Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Turkey).