A joint Eurasian Economic Commission and International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation round table "Eurasian transport corridors as part of the system of global transport communications" was held on November 11, 2021

In connection with the approval of the list of Eurasian transport corridors and routes by the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission on October 26, 2021 a joint Eurasian Economic Commission and International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation round table "Eurasian transport corridors as part of the system of global transport communications" was held on November 11, 2021.

"The round table was chaired by Asanbek Asenbekov, member of the Board (Minister) of the Eurasian Economic Commission for Energy and Infrastructure. The moderator was Gennady Bessonov, Secretary General of the International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation.

In his opening speech, Gennady Bessonov stressed the importance of this decision for economic development as a whole. "The development of international transport corridors not only speeds up trade flows. This process has a significant multiplier effect, giving an impulse to the expansion of international trade, optimization of supply chains and, therefore, increasing the competitiveness of national economies. In its turn, the International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation has for many years carried out productive work on the organization of Euro-Asian railway multimodal services, worked on the development and implementation of initiatives in the sphere of digitalization in transport and the integration of Trans-Eurasian routes into multilateral international projects.

The role of transport corridors in ensuring stable and reliable international transit cannot be overlooked. The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated the importance of uninterrupted, reliable and safe transport links for meeting the needs of the economy and society.

The provision of through-competitive transport services made it possible not only to maintain the pre-pandemic volumes of rail and multimodal transit, but also to significantly exceed them. Of course, this was the result of a lot of work in the infrastructure, rule-making technical and technological spheres.

At the same time, the growing volume of traffic shows the need to develop comprehensive solutions to reduce travel time, simplify border crossing, improve the interaction of all participants in the transportation process and regulatory authorities in electronic form" - noted the Secretary-General of the CCTT.

The heads of structural departments of the Eurasian Economic Commission: Dauren Saubitov, Director of Transport and Infrastructure Department, Igor Nazaruk, Director of Trade Policy Department, Avtandil Alybaev, Deputy Director of Integration Development Department, Nurlan Bainazarov, Deputy Director of Customs Law and Law Enforcement Practice Department presented priorities in the development of transport corridors in the EAEU and their significance for the economy of countries. They outlined the correlation of the decision with the integration processes in the EAEU, the implementation of projects in the sphere of digital technologies and the border crossing facilitation.

In their statements and presentations, representatives of the management of transport authorities, the Eurasian Development Bank, transport and logistics operators, and international associations presented industry priorities and advanced technological solutions in export-import and transit transportation. It was stated that the widespread trend to develop multimodality and increase the containerization of goods objectively increases the demand for digitalization. This also applies to the routes of the Trans-Eurasian corridors and routes.

Transport market actors noted the importance of infrastructure development, elimination of bottlenecks, which is an integral part of success in implementation of projects to increase the international transportation. At the same time, attention was drawn to the issues of considering the interests of transport service users, creating client-oriented services, standardization in processing electronic transport documents, including for multimodal transportations.  Proposals were made to improve the efficiency of existing and create new multimodal transport services.

Proceeding from the significance of the strategic analysis for the long-term development of transportation along the international transport corridors, a special attention was given to the issues of scientific, analytical and expert support of developed solutions. Their developments and practical proposals were presented, including the Director General of Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization "Directorate of International Transport Corridors" Alexey Petrov, President of "Transport Systems Development Institute" Alexander Sinev, Director General of the Center for Strategic Studies in Transport Anton Koren and Executive Director of the Center Sergey Kukarev.

"The decision to develop the Eurasian transport corridors is undoubtedly the most important element in building mutually beneficial international cooperation, which opens up great opportunities for everyone. Of course, transport, as the connecting thread of the economy, plays a key role in these integration processes. Thanks to our joint work, I am confident, we will be able to offer our economic operators and our clients in the countries outside the Union beneficial and promising transport and logistics solutions," summed up the discussion panel at the round table, Gennady Bessonov.

The International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation thanks the Eurasian Economic Commission for the event and expresses its gratitude to all participants of the discussion for the practical contribution they made to the process of ensuring the effective functioning of transport corridors in the EAEU.