For the first time since its inception 52 years ago, this reputable international organization held its session in Russia (with Russia's full-fledged membership in the ECMT being formalized in 1997).
Over 30 ministers and secretaries of state from the European countries, delegations from Canada, the United States, Mexico, Korea, Japan, CIS and African countries, as well as a number of international delegations, discussed globalization problems in the transport sphere.
President Vladimir Putin welcomed the European and other countries' transport elite that gathered in Moscow. In his Address to the forum, he said that "the formation of an integral transport infrastructure is of special interest for Russia, which is a central link in the integration effort with its huge transit potential. In the Russian president's words, the optimization of the Russian transport system is in the interests of the entire European community for this reason. Russia attaches much importance to transport corridors, with three of them (Nos. 1, 2 and 9) running across its territory. By expert estimates, traffic speed via transport corridors will rise by 30% and the transportation volume will reach 70 million tons a year by 2020. The state and business will earn additional billions of dollars in profit from the transit of cargoes via Russia.
Even now, the volume of transit freight turnover via Russia grows at a rate of 10% a year, with electronic document circulation being introduced, cargo inspection mechanisms improved, the problems of cargo safety solved, and new frontier checkpoints opened. All this makes it possible to handle cargoes faster and reduce the demurrage of cars from several days to several hours.
Mikhail Fradkov, Russia's prime minister, said at the opening of the session that the Russian authorities give special attention to the development of international transport corridors and pan-European/Asian ties.
"In connection with the above said, the project of a transcontinental container transport route from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast is of great current interest. Its implementation will require joint efforts of the European countries and government institutions, as well as sizeable private investments," Mikhail Fradkov noted.
At present, an active dialogue is being conducted in Russia on state-private cooperation in the sphere of transport. Moscow expects that within the next six years up to $15 billion will be invested into the program of modernizing the international transport corridors (MTKs) and into the national transport infrastructure as a whole.
In addition, Russia can offer the shortest route to Europe - the Northern Sea Route across the Arctic zone. Prior to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, huge nuclear-powered icebreakers ensured uninterrupted navigation there nearly all year round. With the Russian icebreaker fleet being revived now, this project will become more and more interesting for international trade.
The formation of a uniform international policy in the sphere of freight transportation on the continent gave rise to a lively discussion at the ECMT session. The future of the Euro-Asian intermodal transport is a matter of great concern for many European countries, with Russia being a "bridge" linking Europe with Asia. Therefore, the session participants welcomed the reform of railway transport launched in Russia last year. The transport ministers were unanimous in the opinion that the reform was moving in the right direction at an impressive pace.
At the concluding press conference, Russia's transport minister Igor Levitin said, in replying to RIA Novosti's questions about the building of the railway line to the Caspian Sea port of Olya, that the commissioning of the railway line would actually complete the formation of International Transport Corridor No.9 and of the North-South International Transport Corridor.
Now, due to the Olya marine terminal, container cargoes from Central and Northern Europe can be transported to Iran and India via the Caspian Sea. The consignors save more time and money than during the transportation of their cargoes via the Suez Canal.
Igor Levitin also mentioned the agreements reached by Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran to launch the building of a 300 km-long railway section and modernize the entire Iranian railway network so as to extend it to the Iranian-Azeri border and link with the Russian railway network.
Jack Short, ECMT Secretary-General, and many other delegates highly appraised the work of the Moscow ECMT session. A proposal was voiced to make regular ECMT sessions a sort of "transport Davos" at which top government officials of European countries could conduct a dialogue with scientists and businessmen about the development of the transcontinental transport infrastructure.
Next year, the ECMT chairmanship will pass from Russia to Ireland. Patrick Manggan, an Irish spokesman, said that Russia's experience in holding such a major event as an ECMT session would undoubtedly be useful for his country.
