Republic of Belarus signs up to the EU-funded logistics project – Amber Coast Logistics (ACL – to enhance the country's transport & logistics sector.
In the Amber Coast region Belarus has a particular role as a transit country of transnational land based trade and transport flows. It links the economic area of the EU to Russia. It is estimated that about 12 percent of the transit volumes by rail and road from or to Russia run through Belarusian territory. Since 1995, trade flows between Russia, Belarus and the EU increased by a factor of three to four.
Looking at the share of rail, road and inland waterway transport in Belarus an imbalance becomes apparent: With 83,9 percent rail transport has the biggest share, followed by road with 9,8 percent and inland waterway with 6,3 percent.
ACL is funded by the European Union's Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013 and the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). Its aim is to develop multi-modal logistics centres and to connect remote areas in the Amber Coast region and its natural hinterland, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Three partners of the initiative are from Belarus: The research institutes “School of Business and Management of Technologies of Belarusian State University” as well as “Scientific Technological Park ‘Polytechnik’” and the association “Belarusian Association of International Forwarders”. Besides Belarus, representativesfrom Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Denmark and Germany are participating.
“The participation of Belarus in ACL will help to make the country more attractive for foreign carriers”, emphasized Dr. Anatoly Molokovitch, Head of Logistics Department at the School of Business and Management of Technologies of Belarusian State University, at the third Steering Committee Meeting of Amber Coast Logistics (ACL) in November in Warsaw. The School of Business and Management is one of 19 project partners in the transnational logistics project.
About Amber Coast Logistics:
19 project partners from Belarus, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and around 25 associated partners came together under the transnational project Amber Coast Logistics in order to strengthen and exploit existing potential in the transport and logistics sector in the southern and eastern Baltic Sea region.
The goal of Amber Coast Logistics: Support the development of multimodal logistics centres in the southern and eastern Baltic Sea region and thereby improve the accessibility of remote areas.