/ / News
23.02.2012

Belarus’ Transport Ministry to increase export of services by 18% in 2012

MINSK, 23 February (BelTA) – Companies of the Transport and Communications Ministry of Belarus plan to increase the export of services by 18% this year, Transport and Communications Minister Ivan Shcherbo said in the recent phone-in in the ministry.

“Transport companies are set to increase the export of their services by 18% and make up trade surplus at least at $955 million to meet the plan confirmed by the national export development program for 2011-2015,” the minister said.

Special attention in 2012 will be put on improvement of the technology of rail freight traffic by direct specialized and high-speed trains. To develop freight traffic including transit from China to Western Europe the Belarusian Railways will continue the implementation of the joint action plan with the Kazakhstan Railways, strengthening of bilateral and multilateral relations with the railways of the CIS and Baltic.

Work will be intensified on the agreement to develop freight transportation on the Baltic Sea-Black Sea route and on the project to transport goods by container trains “Viking” and “Zubr” attracting additional cargo flows to the port of Illichevsk (Ukraine).

The Belarusian Railways together with the German Railways will continue the project to transport Volkswagen spare parts to/from Kaluga through Brest on the existing routes and set up a new route to Nizhny Novgorod. In addition, in 2012 container trains will continue transporting BMW spare parts from Leipzig (Germany) to Shenyang (China), and also Hewlett Packard products from Chun-Qin (China) to Duisburg (Germany).

In the field of air transport, the new regular flight Minsk-Moscow-Minsk will be opened; flights Minsk-Kaliningrad-Minsk will be made more frequent. Belarus and Latvia will consider opening the new flight Riga-Gomel-Riga, increasing the frequency of Riga-Minsk-Riga flights.

In 2012, Belavia plans to acquire two short-range aircraft into leasing, to replace radar-location, radio navigation and communications equipment and upgrade special equipment, and the equipment of regional airports.