In Europe, rail transport requires a set of rules. The CCTT and the GETO have agreed to work more closely together to find solutions.

Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan), 20 September 2019 - Given the rapidly growing trade and cargo flows along the Silk Road, closer coordination between all parties involved in a geostrategic project covering more than 12,000 kilometers of transport routes is needed. To this end of the 28th Plenary Meeting of the Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transport (CCTT) it was decided to develop closer cooperation with the Group of European Trans-Eurasian Operators and Forwarders (GETO).
According to RZD data, freight flows between China and Europe along the Silk Road railway corridor have increased by more than a third (35 percent) in the last year alone. While China has a strict set of transport planning rules for freight platforms, the European Union is facing a lack of coordinated infrastructure and logistics on its part.
The CCTT and GETO will in the future develop and submit proposals to coordinate both innovative technologies and existing IT solutions with industry and government agencies. "We need to develop an alliance of the public sector, industry and existing infrastructures - terminals and rail networks - to address the main bottlenecks in coordinating the last mile to the end consumer," said Harm Sievers, president of GETO.
The CCTT and the GETO have a long history of close cooperation that continues to benefit both sides to this day. CCTT Secretary General Gennady Bessonov believes that the GEO Partnership Initiative is essential and that there are also very good opportunities in the future to improve this cooperation: "All interested Silk Road partners signal to us that they are ready to improve existing processes and to unite them through us. There are no problems with cooperation - we encourage politicians, authorities and industry from all interested countries to make proposals.
The CCTT and the GETO will work closely together to provide advice on customs procedures, digitalization and harmonization of international transport law in infrastructure development along Euro-Asian routes. An important challenge is to raise awareness among the governments of the countries concerned and to further increase the volume of goods transported under almost equal loads in both directions. "In this way, we will also be able to engage other industries and product groups to gradually create jobs through these services over a 12,000 kilometers corridor that runs through five countries," said Sievers.

Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation (CCTT)
The International Association "Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation" (CCTT) is a non-commercial transport association with unlimited term of activity, registered in the Main Register of the Canton of St. Gallen (Switzerland) on February 21, 1997. The founders of the CCTT are Russian Railways (RZD), German Railways (DB AG), the Group of European Trans Eurasian Operators and Forwarders (GETO), and the Association of International Freight Forwarders of the Republic of Korea (KIFFA). Currently, CCTT has more than 96 member companies from 24 countries, including railways from Europe, Asia and the CIS, leading shipping companies, operators and freight forwarders, ports and warehouses, government agencies, administrations and municipalities, telecommunications and marketing companies, security services and the media.
At the 28th CCTT Plenary meeting was made a historical decision to rename the Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation into the International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation (retaining the CCTT brand and abbreviation) and move the legal address of registration from St. Gallen to the Swiss capital, Bern.

Group of European Trans Eurasian Operators and Forwarders (GETO)
The Group of European Trans Eurasian Operators and Forwarders (GETO) was founded in Basel in 1978. It is one of the initiators and founders of the Coordinating Council on Trans-Siberian Transportation in Moscow and acts as a Western European pillar of the international network for the facilitation of rail transport between Europe and Asia. The joint efforts of the CCTT and GETO to promote international transport across the Eurasian Land Bridge with various initiatives have contributed significantly to the development of transport along this significant railway corridor.