Q: "Sergey Ottovotch, the International Eurasian Transport Forum will be held in St. Petersburg. How will it contribute to solving Russia's economic problems?"

A: "It will, no doubt, be very helpful. Historically Russia, due to her geographic location, has always acted as a bridge between Europe and Asia. Thus, one of the most pressing objectives today is to find strategic, organizational, technological and financial approaches to making that "bridge" attractive to transportation services users. Lobbying government departments will not help. The only way to achieve this objective is by arranging an open discussion involving all interested parties and by mobilizing their joint efforts.

There is good reason for having St. Petersburg as the venue for the Forum: most of the problems to be discussed are related to Russia's northwest. Apart from being one of the main transport junctions in the country, St. Petersburg possesses an impressive cultural and intellectual potential."

Q: "Could you say a few words about the structural organization of the Forum and about the issues on the agenda?"

A: "The Forum is organized by the Russian Federation Ministry of Transport together with the Ministry of Transport Communications, the Federal Road Service, the Federal Airline Service and the administrations of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region. The EC Committee, the UN European Economic Committee and its Asian and Pacific Region Economic and Social Committee will be assisting. Ministers of transportation from most European and several Asian countries as well as leading financiers will participate in the Forum. One gets an idea of how complex, topical and burning the problems to be solved by the Forum are by simply glancing at the list of participants.

Let me mention a few of the most pressing issues, that is, financial support for the development of transport corridors, for the creation of their infrastructures and for monitoring and regulating transportation along with research and development in the sphere of transport corridors."

Q: "What can you say about the development of the Baltic Sea-Centre-Black Sea corridor?"

A: "This transport corridor starts at the border with Finland and passes through St. Petersburg and Moscow to Novorossiisk and Astrakhan, connecting Russia with Europe, Turkey and Middle Eastern countries.

Concrete transportation infrastructure projects are being implemented now on the Moscow-Novorossiisk-Astrakhan leg of the corridor.

In the northern section of the corridor the new ports of Ust-Luga, Batareinaya and Primorsk are currently under construction while the St. Petersburg Seaport is being reconstructed.

Certain segments of motorways and railroads connecting Finland with Novorossiisk and Astrakhan are now being upgraded.

At the southern "gates" of the corridor, the port of Novorossiisk is expanding its container, roller and oil-carrier moorings. The construction of new cargo sections at the ports of Azov and Taganrog are being planned.

Modernization of existing freight terminals and creation of new ones is in progress at all major transport junctions.

The corridor, when completed, will make cargo transportation speedier and safer, thus providing both consignors and consignees with much better services."

Q: "How are the main Eurasian transport communications on Russia's territory developing?"

A: "The final agreements of the Third All-European Transport Conference held in Helsinki in June of last year outlined Russia's priority routes, which are really links between the major transport systems of Europe and Asia. Take, for instance, the route from Moscow to Ekaterinburg and Cheliabinsk and then along the Trans Siberian railway to Vladivostok and Nakhodka. The development of this route will permit the expansion of the area covered by import-export traffic between the leading economic regions of Russia and Western and Eastern European countries. Growing volumes of freight traffic will make transportation along the Moscow-Novorossiisk and Moscow-Astrakhan routes very advantageous, to say nothing of routes linking Europe and the countries of the Asian-Pacific region.

As the Russian government considers the Trans Siberian to be very important, it has approved a project to coordinate and unite the actions of various ministries, departments and transport organizations in order to increase the volume of transit freight traffic along the railway. The project is aimed at providing uninhibited passage of transit freight on the Europe-Asia route and at making transportation across Russia competitive.
As far as sea communication in that direction is concerned, the Northern Sea route is the shortest. It can offer the most time- and cost-effective transportation (as opposed to the southern sea route) between ports in Northern and Western Europe, North America, Japan, Korea, China and Russia."

Q: "When speaking of transport corridors you rated their infrastructure facilities very highly. What can you say about the logistics centres that are being created and also about the freight terminal under construction now at the Shushary railway station outside St. Petersburg?"

A: "The main purpose of logistics centres is to speed up the passage of freight, to cut transportation costs and to provide the highest quality transportation services to the user.

One cannot but appreciate the fact that such centres are being created. Several of them have already been established around Moscow, including, among others SPAK JSC and TERMINAL-M JSC. They complete customs documents, clear goods through customs, and sort and pack them. They have their own hotels, warehouses, filling and service stations.
The logistics centre at Shushary Station will process and redistribute freight delivered by railroads and motorways and dispatch transit cargo to other regions. It can also be used as a temporary storage facility for shipments to subsequently be transferred to ports."

Q: "Extending "Russia's transportation gates" means building a large number of new facilities in and around St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region. How important will the creation of new jobs be?"

A: "The construction of new ports in the Gulf of Finland along with rail and motorway approaches to them, as well as the reconstruction of the St. Petersburg Seaport, will naturally help to improve the employment situation in the area. According to the feasibility study, the new facilities will provide 20 thousand new jobs. This in turn will influence other fields connected with transport.
I am grateful to the heads of scientific-research and development institutes for their active participation in elaborating transport projects. The list of those who have received orders is long."

Q: "Are there any estimates of the benefit that the state budget will receive from the construction of new ports?"

A: "Additional port facilities will no doubt change the amount of budget deductions at all levels. The deductions are estimated at over $400 million if cargo turnover will be as much as 100 million tons a year. Some of the money will remain in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region and will be spent on housing development and on the construction of various public buildings."

Q: "The construction of Baltic Sea ports is certain to affect the environment. What protective measures will be taken?"

A: "Issues of environmental protection have top priority in designing new ports. We will minimize the impact on the environment. Moreover, St. Petersburg's environment is expected to improve because the transfer of powdery substances and chemicals will be conducted through the new Ust-Luga port. The plan is to process only general cargoes and containers in the St. Petersburg Seaport."

Q: "The mass media of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have been reporting concern that the construction of ports in Leningrad Region is but a political effort to strangle the ports of Tallinn, Riga, Kleipeda and Ventspils, among others. What can you say on that score?"

A: "The development of new ports is dictated by the needs of Russia's foreign trade rather than the ambitions of government officials. Meeting the economic interests of consignors requires looking for the most efficient ways of transporting freight to the market. All the plans and activities of Russian business people involved in the construction of new ports are, therefore, prompted by the desire to make foreign trade as efficient and well-balanced as possible. The Baltic States must understand this. Today Baltic ports are able to process a certain volume of our freight. The situation however has recently been changing. That is why all decisions must be taken only after having considered prospects for the future. Our Baltic neighbours are not the only ones concerned with improving their own national economies. In his address to the Federal Assembly, President Yeltsin clearly outlined the main task of Russia's transport complex, namely, not to hinder economic and industrial growth. Fulfilling this task dominates work on the existing transportation projects."

Interview by Ludmila Zadvoreva

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