OREANDA-NEWS. On November 24, 2008 the State Duma, Russia’s lower chamber of parliament, held a Round Table on “The Development of the Transport System and Russia’s Geo-Economic Interests”, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

Vladmir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, took part in the discussions on the critical issues regarding the development of rail transport and its transit potential.

Yakunin noted that the international and infrastructure projects detailed in the “Strategy for the Development of Railway Transport in the Russian Federation until 2030” are becoming more difficult to implement due to the economic crisis.

“Despite this, in November the Russian Government announced its intention to retain all the elements of the Company’s investment programme,” said Yakunin.

This decision will allow the Company to complete the main measures needed for the modernisation of the railway infrastructure, including those required for the development of transit shipments by rail.

Yakunin reminded the Round Table that the Company could be viewed as an instrument of geopolitical influence.

For example, the concession to manage Armenian Railways was not so much an economic, as a geopolitically expedient move. The project to restore the Khassan - Rajin railway line also played a positive role in geopolitics.

The participants of the Round Table noted the importance of developing the East-West Eurasian corridor, which is being optimised by developing in turn the transportation and logistics infrastructure of the Trans-Siberian and providing for the transportation of large containers and passenger traffic.

“The Trans-Siberian will strengthen its position on the Eurasian transport market following the planned reconstruction and reinstatement of the Trans-Korean Main Line. This year, together with our North Korean partners, Russian Railways began implementing a pilot project to reconstruct the Rajin - Khasan line and the construction of a container terminal with an approximate capacity of 100,000 TEU at the port of Rajin,” said Yakunin.

The most promising area for attracting shipments to Russia’s East - West rail corridor is international trade from north and north-east China, South Korea and Japan.

In addition, Yakunin also pointed out that in the long run Mongolia will become an important route for container cargo between China and Europe and thus play a vital role in Eurasian transit shipments.

Experts estimate the current volume of trade between Asia-Pacific and Europe at around USD600 billion. Yakunin said that as a result, developing the transit potential of Russia’s railways was crucial in terms of geopolitics and geo-economics.

Russian Railways is also actively cooperating with Iran and Azerbaijan in order to complete the North - South International Transport Corridor, which when completed in the coming years will for the first time in history create a land bridge of some 4,500 kilometers between St. Petersburg and port of Bandar-Abbas in the Persian Gulf and link North-Western and Central Europe with the Middle East and South Asia.

The Round Table also discussed possibilities for effectively developing Russia’s transit capacity, including the need to increase the use of innovative technologies and bring Russia’s legislation into line with the requirements of the country’s Strategy for the Development of the Transport System.

The Round Table’s main conclusion was that developing the transit potential of Russia’s railways would support the country’s economy.