OREANDA-NEWS. July 21, 2011. Belarus should use its transit potential in full. Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich made the statement as he met with Secretary General of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) Martin Marmy.

The Belarusian head of government underlined that Belarus is in the center of Europe and therefore the development of automobile transportation and transit is a topical matter. “We should explore this geopolitical reality in full,” he said. This is why cooperation and future interaction with the International Road Transport Union is of great interest and opens up new prospects for Belarus.

Mikhail Myasnikovich pointed out the growing volume of automobile transportation in Belarus. “Last year transportation by road grew by a third. This year the growth pace is roughly the same,” said the Prime Minister. He stressed that close attention is paid to the development of the transport system in Belarus. Considerable investments are poured into the development of motorways and motorway service infrastructure. “We understand perfectly well that if we don’t take care of the road network and infrastructure, truckers will seek other routes,” said Mikhail Myasnikovich.

Last year Belarus exported nearly USD 700 million worth of automobile transportation services. In January-May 2011 the figure is close to USD 400 million. According to the Prime Minister, the figure will grow larger thanks to bilateral and multilateral cooperation with international partners in automobile transportation.

The Belarusian Prime Minister thanked the IRU for cooperation and partnership, for IRU investments in the assimilation of new information technologies in Belarus, for the ability to use driver training programs. “Without this union led by you it would have been quite hard for us to deal with these matters. We would have been unable to tackle some of them at all,” said Mikhail Myasnikovich. The Prime Minister said he was confident that the present visit of the Union delegation to Belarus would contribute to the development of the bilateral cooperation. “We will stipulate the matters you have already resolved and we will discuss new approaches in our joint efforts. Belarus is open to cooperation with the IRU,” he stressed.

In turn, IRU Secretary General Martin Marmy said he was delighted with the Belarusian government’s level of understanding and vision of the problems that exist in automobile transportation. “I would like to note that I am truly impressed by the attitude and approaches I have seen,” said the Secretary General. “With this recognition and understanding of our partners, our union aims to make everything even better”.

The International Road and Transport Union (IRU) is ready to help Belarus develop its transit capacity, IRU Director General Martin Marmy told reporters.

The expert highly praised Belarus’ transit capacity. “Belarus is an ideal place from the geographical point of view, it is the crossroads of the main transport routes. The country becomes a bridge which links consumers and manufacturers of the European Union and Asia, China. We are here to strengthen this bridge,” Martin Marmy said. According to him, Belarus has all necessary facilities, qualified people, thus Belarus-IRU cooperation will be mutually beneficial.

Martin Marmy paid special attention to the development of the Belarusian park of international carriers. Twenty years ago it consisted of only 300 vehicles, now it has almost 12,000 vehicles. This transport operated in the markets of many countries.

Martin Marmy said that only 1% of trade between Europe and Asia is carried out by land transport today. At the same time almost 40% of EU-China goods are transported by plains. However, air transport is much more expensive than motor transport. It is less environmentally-friendly as carbon emissions are 20 times higher. “My dream is to transport these 40% of goods by motor transport,” Martin Marmy said.

The International Road and Transport Union is the global voice of the road transport industry. The IRU’s mission is to facilitate road transport worldwide and ensure its sustainable development, notably by using vocational training to promote professional competence in the sector and improve the quality of services it offers. It defends customers’ freedom of choice between transport modes and the equal regulatory treatment of all modes, and promotes cooperation with all other modes of transport. Today the IRU consists of 180 members from 74 countries.