On November 21-22, 2018, in Brussels (Belgium), a two-day forum «Second Eurasian Connectivity and Industrial Cooperation Forum – The Trans-Eurasian Silk Road railway land bridge: new challenges in infrastructure, operations and rolling stock» was organized by the FERRMED Association.
The forum brought together over 160 representatives of transport and logistics, trading companies, associations, EU state bodies and business community, as well as representatives of the embassies of Kazakhstan, China and the others.
On the first day of the forum, November 21, 2018, a conference was held on the theme «The business oriented approach to EU/Eurasian Core Network development to optimize «One Belt One Road» logistics global chain» which was attended by representatives of the International Association «Trans-Caspian International Transport Route» and its members –»Ukrzaliznytsia» JSC (Ukraine), PKP LHS (Poland), «ADY Express» CJSC (Azerbaijan).
During the conference, the Secretary General of the International Association TITR, Rakhmetolla Kudaibergenov presented the current situation, infrastructure and future plans for the development and attraction of goods at the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor). Representative of PKP LHS, Magdalena Ryszko, also participated as a speaker at the conference and presented current activities of PKP LHS, as well as part of the development of the Middle Corridor.
As part of the event, the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding between the TITR Association and FERRMED was held. Within the framework of MoU the organizations will cooperate in increasing the competitiveness of international railway and multimodal freight transportation by improving the quality of transport services, simplifying border crossing procedures with international freight traffic and etc. Joint efforts will contribute in attracting new freight traffic to Eurasian international transport corridors, increasing the range of cargoes transported through the Eurasian railways network.
On the second day of the forum, November 22, 2018, representatives of the TITR Association, PKP Cargo together with the other participants of the conference took part at the session organized in the European Parliament. During the session President of FERRMED Association, Joan Amorós presented the conclusions of the FERRMED Forum made the day before which aimed at strengthening the Trans-Eurasian and Trans-European railway system. Among the attendees of the session were Boguslaw Liberadzki, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Elisabeth Werner, Director, Land Transport, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission (DG MOVE), Josef Doppelbauer, Executive Director of the European Union Agency for Railways, Isabelle Ryckbost, Secretary General of the European Sea Ports Organization and others.
For reference: FERRMED is a non-profit multisectoral Association that was founded by the private sector in Brussels on the 5th of August 2004 in order to improve rail freight transportation and industrial competitiveness in Europe. FERRMED actually have 148 associated enterprises, universities, organizations and more from all around Europe.
