MINSK, 26 November (BelTA) – A Belarus-China agreement on international transportation by road may come into force in early 2020, BelTA learned from Head of the Automobile and Urban Passenger Transport Office of the Belarusian Transport and Communications Ministry Sergei Dubina at a press conference on 26 November.
The official reminded that three international agreements in the area of transportation by road have been signed this year. Those include a protocol on amending the Belarus-Moldova agreement on introducing permit-free transportation and agreements with China and the UK in the area of international transportation by road.
Sergei Dubina went on saying: “As far as China is concerned, we've already completed all the procedures we had to. As far as we know, the Chinese side has also either completed the procedures or is about to. The agreement specifies it will come into force 30 days after the latest written notification about the completion of the relevant procedures is received. We expect it to happen in late 2019 or early 2020.”
According to the Transport and Communications Ministry representative, transportation will begin in 2020 anyway.
“Previously China allowed trucking only close to the border – 60km away from the closest transportation and logistics hub. It was true both for foreign truckers entering China and Chinese truckers leaving the country. We've become the third country, with which China has signed the document that covers all kinds of transportation, including transit one. In other words, our agreement allows transportation beyond the border zone. It allows trucking across entire China,” Sergei Dubina noted.
International road haulage accounts for a hefty chunk of Belarus' foreign currency earnings. In January-September 2019 the growth rate of the export of automobile transport services amounted to 104.8% as against the same period of last year (over $1 billion).
