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On Wednesday, May 13, the participants of the International Eurasian Conference on Transport continued their discussions. In addition to the number of questions discussed the day before, which covered mostly policies for developing the communications networks of the West and the East, today the issue of coordinating the preliminary assignments and financing the supposed projects was clearly articulated. The representative of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Mr. G. Smith, drew the participants' attention to the fact that all state budgets are limited and that private investors are showing reasonable caution while considering the proposed projects that must have an acceptable level of profitability. From this point of view a lot of plans that are being counted on by the states offering their own versions of transport corridors are very vulnerable. This situation was discussed by the participants of the sectional workshops that were held during the first day of the conference. While concluding those discussions the co-chairmen of the sections drew their colleagues' attention to a number of suggestions involving the necessity of defining the role of the state more clearly in the financial side of the transportation process and in its management as well as in strengthening international collaboration. It is worth mentioning that the participants frequently mentioned the historical links and routes that were created between peoples and countries throughout the centuries. The representatives of Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Georgia and Azerbaidjan suggested taking these geopolitical traditions into account as a foundation for present-day transport and economic contacts. In general, the transport corridors that are being planned are already taking the centuries-old commercial streams into account in one way or another. However the argument that in the present world of rapid change different criteria and evaluations of primary importance must be used is also very convincing. Russia's geographic position is not the only factor that makes that possible. The conference discussed not only the construction of new routes to the West or East, but also the effective and skillful use of everything created in the country over the whole period of its existence. A well-developed network of railways in the European part of Russia, the Trans Siberian and Baikal-Amur railways, the ports on the Black and Baltic Seas, as well as those on numerous rivers of Russia, "river-sea" ships that can carry cargo not only to inland ports, but also to the ports on the outer seas and long distance motor and air thoroughfares. According to the speakers at the conference, the entire transport network of Russia possesses a great potential that should be adapted to the needs and requirements of the leading world carriers. The great body of experience of fast, safe and reliable transportation should, of course, be tapped. For instance, a number of speakers emphasized that some types of cargo require delivery speed as the most important condition of their transportation. For other kinds of goods it is the cost of transportation and its reliability that is most important. That is why these rapidly changing requirements must be considered while choosing a transport corridor and developing the necessary infrastructure. There is another issue. It has been calculated that from the entire time period required to deliver the cargo from the consignor to the consignee only 20 per cent is spent on the transportation process itself. During the remaining 80 per cent the cargo is stored in customs and border transit areas. That is why sometimes it is not capital investment that is the most important factor but rather agreement between states as well as mutual consent and good-neighbor relations. These intangibles are sometimes more important than considerable amounts of capital.
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