MINSK, 9 November (BelTA) – Head of Belarusian Railways Vladimir Morozov has held a presentation in China to sketch out prospects of developing Belarusian Railways' transport and logistics potential taking into account the Belt and Road initiative, BelTA has learned.
The invitation was extended by China Merchants Group. Vladimir Morozov held the presentation during an international logistics cooperation forum Belt and Road. He remarked that Belarus offers the shortest railway routes for container trains from China to Belarus. Belarusian Railways also offers facilities for switching from the 1,520mm rail gauge to the 1,435mm one. Over 90% of all the freight transported by rail between Europe and China passes Belarus in transit.
Belarusian Railways and its partners take measures to develop the infrastructure and improve the technology for transporting containers between Europe and China. Vladimir Morozov said Belarusian Railways is ready to handle all the predicted freight traffic transported via Belarus and to and from Belarus.
Head of Belarusian Railways Vladimir Morozov met with General Manager of China Railways Corporation Lu Dongfu. The sides discussed the current state and development prospects of container transportation between China and Europe. The sides mentioned the dynamic and steady growth of container transportation between China and Belarus. In January-September 2018 2,373 container trains from 50 Chinese cities crossed Belarus to reach 40 cities in 15 European countries and come back. The trains carried 213,400 containers, 25% up from the same period of last year. Plans have been made to transport at least 340,000 containers by the end of the year.
According to Vladimir Morozov, Belarusian Railways also pays attention to the export of Belarusian products to China using container trains. The first container train bearing products of the woodworking company Kronospan left Smorgon for Chengdu in May 2017. The first container train bearing Belarusian dairy products left Minsk for Chongqing in September 2018. “Projects to use container trains to deliver Belarusian food, timber products, and paper to China are being actively implemented. The travel time varies from 12 to 14 days,” said the head of Belarusian Railways.
