News

On March 27-28, Kaluga hosted TransCargo - the first Transport and Logistics Congress of the Central Federal District. The principal purpose of the congress is to establish a forum for an open dialogue between governmental officials, investors, consignors and freight carriers. Participants focused their attention on the improvement of the investment climate in CFD’s regions, attracting of Russian and foreign investors to regional transport and logistics projects.

The first day of the congress started with a plenary session dedicated to strategic priorities in development of the transport and logistics sector.

Speaking about the Russian Transport Strategy until 2030, Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Nikolai Zakhriapin emphasized several directions of the industry’s development: balanced transport infrastructure development, creation of major transport hubs, development and introduction of new transport and logistics technologies, updating of the vehicle fleet. The Ministry of Transport continuously reviews the strategy to reflect the ever-changing external factors. “The strategy is based on long-term forecasts of the country’s social and economic development with two scenarios – the basic scenario and the conservative one. Since the approved federal budget for 2014 and the 2015-2016 planning period slightly exceeds conservative scenario financing, we can assume that the Russian government strives to facilitate innovative development – specifically, by improving the transport industry”, said Nikolai Zakhriapin.

The role of regions in the development of the CFD’s transport and logistics potential should not be underestimated.

Kaluga Region’s Governor Anatoly Artamonov noted that the region has set a target to create an efficient transport and logistics system. “We are building multimodal transport and logistics terminals and warehouse complexes, developing motorway, railway and airport infrastructures. We are cooperating with major logistics operators, including GEFCO, Green Logistics, Rhenus Logistics, TransContainer”, commented Anatoly Artamonov.

After the plenary session, Freight Village RU President Philipp Nissen and GEFCO’s Director of Multimodal Transportation in Russia and CIS Evija Robalde signed a memorandum on cooperation. The parties agreed on the use of Freight Village Rosva and Freight Village Vorsino multimodal logistics terminal infrastructures to improve the competitiveness of GEFCO’s services by shifting focus from motorway to railway transportation. The parties also agreed to join efforts in the organization of regular container trains and integration of Kaluga Region’s terminal logistics centers into international transport corridors.

Later on, Freight Village RU, Investor Center Ostbrandenburg (operator of the Frankfurt International Trade Center (Oder)) (ICOB) and the Association of German Freight Villages (DGG) signed a letter of intent on the creation of a freight village union. DGG is the principal agency representing the common interests of German logistics centers. Within the scope of the letter of intent, DGG acts as an intermediary between FVRu and ICOB.