Improving the efficiency of transport in the Baltic Sea – Black Sea areas
Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania and Georgia will work to improve the efficiency of transport in the Baltic Sea – Black Sea areas with the use of combined Viking transport and the existing rail and train ferries. This agreement was reached during a ministerial council meeting held in Batumi.
Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Vera Kobalia, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Infrastructure Boris Kolesnikov, Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania Eligiyus Masiulis and Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications of Belarus Alexander Shishkov attended the ministerial meeting.
The transit issue is extremely important for Georgia and now there is an opportunity to establish a transit towards the Baltic and Black Sea areas, Kobalia told reporters on Wednesday.
“Today we need to work out the basic principles for the coordinated development of the rail-ferry service. To do this it’s necessary to attract additional cargo and customer base, to form a competitive tariff policy and eliminate barriers to the successful development of transportation,” she said.
Kobalia said the necessary procedures for accession to the Agreement on the development of goods transportation in the areas of the Baltic Sea – Black Sea, Georgia and Moldova are nearing completion.
For rapid response all parties have agreed to regularly exchange statistics on goods transported in transit, export and import systems. In addition, countries will share rate conditions on the Viking route.
Combined Viking transport train began transportation in 2003. The route passes through the territories of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania: and connects the ports of Illichivsk Odessa on the Black Sea and Klaipeda on the Baltic Sea.
Source: Turkish Weekly
