|
|
In your opinion, what is prospect on further development of the Great Silk Way project?
In September 1998 a summit of historical importance was held in Baku and devoted to prospects of developing the Eurasian transport corridor. A signing of the main multilateral agreement on the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor development by twelve states was its key event. Ten of the states have already ratified the document to date. Kazakhstan and Turkey, in all probability, will do that up to the end of 2000. At the summit a Final communiqué has been adopted and signed by 45 states and international organisations. A political progress achieved in development of the Eurasian transport corridor is noted in the communiqué, as well as, there is also an appeal to all countries interested in development of the corridor to maximally enhance mutually profitable interregional cooperation. The main agreement also emphasises main principles and postulates for development of the Eurasian transport corridor. The technical appendixes of the agreement concern the railway, marine, car transportation and simplifying the customs procedures.
Intergovernmental commission was established within the frameworks of the agreement. The commission will have meetings once a year. Under the terms of the main agreement the commission set up a standing secretariat headquarter of which is located in Baku. Every quarter the secretariat invites the working groups of the national secretaries. The first such sitting took place in the period of July 18 to July 21. The institute for national secretaries can be described as a representative office of the Secretariat in the countries signed the main multilateral agreement. They are committed to monitor fulfilment of the agreement’s main clauses. The European Commission having attached a significant important to the Institute has made a decision on funding it within 2-3 years. One of the main aims of the National Secretaries Institute is to associate the national legislation concerning transit shipments and issues related to transportation with the international agreements and conventions. A harmonization of the legal practice should provide a commercial attractiveness of the transport corridor to a great extent.
It is important to note that the issues related to enhancement of TRACECA’s competitiveness are in the foreground at the present. That is the main goal, burden of activity of the Standing Secretariat and National Secretaries. Three of nine projects approved at the first Intergovernmental conference held this March in Tbilisi were discussed in the first sitting of the national Secretaries in Baku. The projects have been comprehensively analyzed. The European Commission and the Standing Secretariat committed the National Secretaries to work out the main conditions to the technical tasks concerning the institutional reorganizations not only in every country separately, but in relation to the corridor as a whole. The first project touches upon establishment of a common legislative base in the first of transit. The second project relates to harmonization of the boundary procedures. The third one highlights unified policy of transit tariffs and customs duties. All of the projects are basic elements for implementation of the key clauses of the main multilateral agreement. The reality shows that the number of countries interested in TRACECA will increase. The links existing within the frameworks of the program as well as within the frameworks of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) will speed up transformation of the regional relations into successful interregional cooperation and provide development of countries in the Black Sea and Caspian basins of the Caucasus and Middle Asia for the purpose of their quicker integration into the transport infrastructure of the European community.
How much is Georgia involved in the project at present?
Georgia has been taking part in 28 out of 40 projects started under the aegis of TACIS-TRACECA program since 1995. The most significant of them are the construction of train-ferry terminal at the port of Poti and building of new car bridge through Hrami River at the Georgian-Azeri border. At the present this is the major project. A EURO15m investment project on laying a fiber-optic cable and installation of relevant equipment along the railways of Georgia, which has already started, is a priority-driven for us.
Once Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan get possessory right on the cable with corresponding equipment, they can rent unequipped capacity. The demands are very high: Banking system, Regional television, radio broadcasting, Internet, etc.
According to the experts, annual extra profit of every railway would total $10m to $12m as a result of commercialisation of the project in future; let alone a raise in train traffic that results in reduction of traffic handling cost. In the long run this should favourably impact the tariff policy.
The second project deals with reconstruction of the train-ferry terminal at the Batumi port and establishment of corresponding infrastructure. So-called "European track" will be created. That will lead to bringing into operation the second triangle: Batumi-Samsun-Konstantsa with a railway meeting European requirements. It would enable to directly connect the Georgian, Turkish and Romanian railroads in future. This will attract additional freight traffic and reduce traffic handling cost by 20-30% compared to motor transport.
At the moment the negotiations ongoing on extending a grant to the tune of above EURO 2m to carry out relevant work at the Batumi Sea Port.
Also, the important projects on technical assistance are put into effect at the moment. These are: freight flow forecast in our corridor and assistance to the international transit motor freights. The negotiations are ongoing with the European Commission to survey opportunities for finding the projects, which have been approved, in the first sitting of the Intergovernmental Commission held this March in Tbilisi.
The rehabilitation work on the train-ferry terminal at the port of Aktau will also start in the nearest future, and this will contribute to engage additional freight flow in the TRACECA corridor as a whole, and, in particular, for Georgia. Thus, the EC tries all ways to aid us to integrate into corresponding European infrastructures in terms of transportation, power engineering, telecommunications, environment protection, etc.
What sort of problems (political, economic, etc.) can be observed on the way of putting the project into practice?
The implementation of TRACECA’s projects in 1998-2000 shows that almost in all countries participating in the program, including, Georgia, there is lack of systematic and coordinated approach to concept of international transit freight traffic as a whole due to the lack of single legislative framework in the corresponding state structures. Therefore, the aspiration of our countries to integration into the European transport nets is hampered. Moreover, a an adherence of different state bodies to unbalanced and inadequate tariff policy, imperfection of administrative procedures when crossing the boundary regions, ungrounded rates of extra fees, transit customs taxes, and, the most important, illegal payments result in incredible raise in traffic handling cost. It is then undermines our authority and unfavourably affects competitiveness of TRACECA’s corridor as a whole. However paradoxical it is all occurs at the time when the top administration of our states attaches a great importance to and periodically declares about priority-driven development of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor, and calls upon to enhance its competitiveness.
With due regard to strategic importance of developing the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor for the countries signed the main Multilateral Agreement (MMA), it is high time to develop a common approach to resolve the problems with the international freight flows and legal aspects involved through systematization of corresponding laws and amendment of the standards which do not correspond to the international legal acts principles, or through the adopting of a special law to regulate international transit freights.
In 1996 about 40m of transit commodities were transported by the northern corridor (via Russia). About 4.5m were delivered through TRACECA’s corridor. However, the southern corridor (through Turkey and Iran) provided transportation for 5m tones of goods. The Europe-Caucasus-Asia can attract 10% of goods from the northern and 20-30% of freight from the southern transport corridors. This target cannot be met without flexible tariff policy of the countries taking part in TRACECA program.
Today, transportation of crude oil from Kazakhstan plays important role in the cargo transportation via our corridor. TRACECA’s European experts have prepared an analysis on alternative prospects on delivery of crude oil, and one can expect appearance of other route in the nearest future. Such the aspects should be taken into account right now.
TRACECA’s coordination group undertook analysis of present tariff policy in 1999 on the Poti to Tashkent route. A transportation of a 20-feet container costs USD 1,209. Thereby, it should be taken into account that the distance here is 2.5 times longer than the Poti direction.
The Novorossiysk-Tashkent route has similar distance as to Poti. However, the transportation cost for a container totals USD825.
In conditions of rigid competition, when selecting the routes for the cargoes transportation, everything is solved within the frameworks of famous commercial triangle: Service, Time, Tariff. Thus, if the tariffs and service are not brought to correspondence to the demands of present transport market, it is more difficult for the TRACECA corridor to meet the competition that becomes pointed.
On the assumption of above stated it is possible to ascertain that if the marketing of cargoes transportation in present alternative corridors is not studied, all efforts aimed at enhancement of TRACECA transport corridor’s competitiveness are not efficient. The national Secretaries Institute has been established for that purpose, i.e. study alternative options. The working groups will be established on every of three above mentioned projects. The working groups will have direct links to the colleagues who are involved in TRACECA program. In terms of that the National Secretaries Institute, by implementing the will of own presidents who signed the MMA in Baku, should play an important role in putting main postulates laid in the MMA into effect.
What is the present condition of the Georgian transport system and does it meet economic demands of the country?
The Georgian economy, which leaves lingering crisis, continuously issues the new, more complicated and scale challenges to the transport system of the country. Their resolution leads to dynamic growth of the annually performed transportation work, quantity of cargoes and passengers transported, a significant portion of which lies on the transit transportation.
For the past years the rolling-stock has been refurbished and upgraded, new forms for organizing transportation and managing the transport-technological and economic processes have been introduced. Their role in formation of the revenue item of the state budget is continuously growing.
The main target of the transport-cargo service to economy and population of the country at the state of existing requirements is performed successfully, and accompanied by some excess of service offers in comparison to demand on both internal and outside markets of the transport-forwarding services.
However, in order to provide a strategic stability of existing situation in the foreseeable future, the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Georgia actively works on attracting foreign investments for continuous development of the production facilities and permanent enhancement of service culture.
The volumes of already attracted foreign investments for the past years total tens of million USD. For instance, presently an international tender on construction of new seaport at mouth of Inguri River at the Black Sea coast of Georgia is ongoing. The project is estimated at USD500m.
Aforesaid by no means stipulates lack of problems or their insignificance. In addition, the Ministry uses advanced management methods aimed at state regulation of the sector in conditions of market economy, that provide a systematic, integrated and purposeful approach to solution of the problems, rational utilization of rather limited financial, material recourses and organizational-intellectual potential in sorting out paramount, key problems.
What new joint transport projects are planned for implementation together with Azerbaijan?
It is planned to put into effect many joint transport projects with Azerbaijan. However, I would focus attention to technical projects being planned in accordance with TRACECA plan. For example, a project will be implemented on studying ways for restoration and building of a motorway linking capitals of the states of Southern Caucasus with each other and ports of the Black Sea. For implementation of the project EURO 1.5m have been extended. Also, a putting into commissioning of a multimodal terminal servicing will be completed this year as well as studying and forecasting freight flows.
In addition, the rehabilitation of railway on the Baku to Tbilisi to Baku, laying and technical provision for the fiber-optic cable along the railway, establishment of common control system for airspace and aircraft's control system for the Southern Caucasus and Middle Asia, design, construction and commissioning of the oil-products terminal and complex in Kulev will be implemented at the expense of the credits from the International Financial Institutions and private companies.