Vale Customs Bonded Terminal

Vale (Georgian: ვალე) is a town in south-western Georgia, 12 km from the city of Akhaltsikhe, in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region on the border with Turkey. Its population is 5,031 (2014 Georgia census). Vale is a border crossing point into the Turkish village of Türkgözü, in the Posof district.
 
The town is situated on the right bank of the Potskhovi River (a tributary to the Mtkvari), on the slopes of the Lesser Caucasus at 1,000m-1,200m above sea level.
 
Vale is first recorded as a village in the 10th-century. It emerged as a centre of the lignite industry in the Soviet era and acquired town status in 1962.
 
Vale houses a medieval Georgian Church of the Theotokos originally built in the 10th century, but reconstructed as a three nave basilica in the 16th century.
 
Vale is a very interesting point on TRACECA transport corridor due to its location at the Georgian-Turkish border. Vale is transhipment point for cargoes coming from Central Turkey to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Cargo is unloaded from road vehicles and loaded onto rail wagons and vice-versa – cargo is unloaded from rail wagons and loaded onto road vehicles (e.g. grain and coal from Kazakhstan to North-Eastern Turkey, Northern Iraq and Iran).
 
AGTD is in the process of constructing a customs bonded warehouse at Vale to accommodate containers, general cargoes and to provide warehousing and other services. Ulevi Terminal Systems, a daughter Company of AGTD was created for terminal management. The Vale Customs Bonded Terminal became operational in October, 2015.