Transport routes in Eurasian region discussed at conference in Almaty

The transport routes in the Eurasian region were discussed at a conference in Almaty. In particular, the connections of the east-west and north-south corridors. These directions are also interesting for Belarus as a major exporter of its goods. How much can freight traffic by rail and road grow? How the Asian region is turning into a transport hub of major highways.

Svetlana Lukyanuk listened to the opinions of experts from the Eurasian Development Bank.

Delivering cargo quickly and inexpensively. The solution to this problem is important for both buyers and sellers. The Eurasian region covers a large territory, each country has its own road and rail network. But today, more and more people are talking about developing the connectivity of these routes to ensure seamless logistics and convenient border crossings.

These issues were discussed at a conference in Kazakhstan. The Eurasian transport framework is a project of the Eurasian Development Bank. Given the new trade routes from west to east and from north to south, as well as the growth of cargo traffic, international trade needs reliable connections. Therefore, they also talked about bottlenecks in transport corridors that are currently holding back the movement of goods.

Evgeny Vinokurov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board - Chief Economist of the EDB:

"Our region has historically developed connections along the west-east axis for the last 300 years. Since the time of the Silk Road, they all went from west to east. And only in recent years has the rapid development of so-called meridional corridors begun: along the north-south axis. We have released a whole series of studies that prove that when north-south is connected to west and east, 40% of additional cargo flow is formed at the intersection. And the practice of the last three years has proven this. The so-called middle corridor from Kazakhstan has connected to the western north-south branch (Azerbaijan - Iran). And at their intersection, exactly 40% of the container flow plus arose due to the fact that new opportunities, new routes for logistics have appeared."

Fast logistics will help not only to reduce tariffs, but also to increase cargo flow by at least 40%. Belarus, as an exporting country, is interested in routes through Central Asia, sending goods to China, the Middle East or Africa. Take, for example, the trans-Caspian international route. The number of container shipments this year has increased 20-fold, and transit shipments to China - 10-fold. There is growth in other directions as well.

The head of the EDB Center for Integration Studies, Alexander Zaboev, particularly noted shipments from Belarus to the Baltic ports in Russia. "The loading of the Baltic sea ports was largely ensured by Belarusian mineral fertilizers. And this is a very large contribution to the work of the ports, on the one hand, since they got work, on the other hand, this is a reliable transit route for the delivery of Belarusian products to foreign markets," he emphasized. - Secondly, it should be noted that Belarusian logistics itself has restructured itself in many other directions, in particular, to the east and south. And this is already a very big positive fact. And this is not only Russia. These are largely the countries of Central Asia, the countries of the Persian Gulf and, paradoxically, China.

Alexander Zaboev:

"Belarusian international automobile carriers now carry out flights with Russia at a distance of 5-7 thousand kilometers, which was not the case before."

The Eurasian Development Bank is ready to support transport corridors with loans. There are already 12 projects worth 400 million dollars and 8 infrastructure ones. These are logistics centers, storage points. New railway lines and approaches to sea ports will also appear.

According to the bank's estimates, by 2030 international transportation, including transit in Central Asia, will grow by 50% - to 95 million tons. And comprehensive solutions from all countries of the Eurasian region will reduce logistics costs by at least 15%.