Ministry of Transport summed up the results of 2022 and defined the tasks for 2023

In the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Belarus, a final collegial meeting was held. The event was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Sivak, Minister of Transport and Communications Alexei Avramenko, representatives of national and local authorities, heads of organizations and companies.

“In 2022, transport, along with other sectors of the economy, has taken on new challenges. Under the existing conditions, the department implemented the tasks set by the head of the state and the government. The main efforts were aimed at structural transformation of the industry, restructuring of logistics chains and minimization of damage from sanctions, “Minister said.

He also noted that today it is necessary not only to develop the directions mastered last year, but also to find new markets. It is necessary to interact constantly with consumers of transport services, as well as to offer new services and improve the work of existing ones.

In 2022 the container railway transportation in the eastern direction was successfully developed. Transportation of containers with the products of the Belarusian enterprises to China amounted to about 120 thousand TEU containers and increased fivefold.

In the field of international road transportation of goods, the number of bilateral shipments to Russia increased. They also became active in the countries of Transcaucasia, Central Asia, Iran and Turkey, transportation from China began as well.

The government’s decision to allow EU trucks and tractors to travel through Belarus only to designated recoupling and reloading points contributed to the provision of transportation work for Belarusian carriers, reorienting them to the EEU and Asian markets.

The agreement with Russia on the cancellation of the categorization of permits to/from third countries also simplified the implementation of cargo transportation. This decision ensured an increase in the number of reloading and recouplings performed by Belarusian road carriers in specially designated areas. The number of such recoupling and reloading systems to/from Russia increased from 7.5 thousand in August to 11 thousand in December 2022.

In October 2022 the Transport Inspectorate began to issue permits for the international transportation of goods through Belarus to EU road carriers, due to the existing difficulties in obtaining Belarusian permits in their countries. During the period of this regulation in 2022, more than 28.000 permits were issued to Belarus.

In addition, last year more than 22 thousand permits for international transportation of goods by road were received from nine countries. Belarusian carriers also received 1.000 permits from China, which were successfully used by Belarusian carriers. Agreements were reached with Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Syria and Uzbekistan on the abolition of the permit system.

In air transportation, the monthly volume of cargoes began to increase in August 2022. In water transportation, the loss of international traffic in Ukraine served as an impulse to increase volumes within the country.

Passenger transport shows positive results for the second year in a row – passenger turnover increased by 4% in 2021. More than 2 thousand urban, suburban and intercity routes were optimized. To update the rolling stock, 245 vehicles were purchased in 2022, while the plan was 167.

The activities of civil aviation were aimed at reorienting the route network. Belavia airline resumed flights to Kaliningrad Yekaterinburg, Dubai, opened flights to Kaliningrad, Turmehbashi, Vnukovo airport, increased the frequency of flights to Yerevan, Baku, Istanbul, Tashkent, Nur-Sultan, Kutaisi, Batumi, and St. Petersburg. Charter flights were operated to Egypt and Turkey.

Last year, transportation services accounted for about 44% of the country’s total exports of services with a positive balance of foreign trade in services of 1.3 billion dollars. The volume of transport services export was about 44% of the total volume of the republican services export. Exports of transportation services increased several times to Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iran, growth was ensured to the Russian Federation, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan.

In 2022, the modernization of the technical fleet for track works on the Augustov Canal was completed. The investment project for the construction of an aircraft repair plant on the territory of the Minsk National Airport continued to be implemented and is scheduled for completion in 2023.

In the area of road construction, 46 road structures on the republican road and 34 on the local road were reconstructed and repaired. More than 800 km of republican roads and 1.5 thousand km of local roads were repaired. The construction of the bypass of Mir was completed; the Mogilev bypass was opened to traffic.

Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Sivak noted in his speech that 2022 is a period of serious changes in the Belarusian transportation market. “The time of adapting the economy to new conditions is over. Today we need to systematically and purposefully develop the transport space in the East, which is a field for our transport companies,” – he said.

In addition, Anatoly Sivak emphasized the need to develop water transport, strengthen the work in the regions to manage the sphere of transportation, efficient use of rolling stock, especially for domestic transport.

He also noted that the logistics companies should focus on the creation of infrastructure abroad in the direction of countries importing Belarusian goods.

At the end of the discussion it was announced that the main goals for the current year are to improve the logistic chains using all types of transport to ensure uninterrupted exports; to ensure growth of exports of transport services, investments, as well as cost reduction and development of import substitution; to improve the efficiency of management and control in the field of domestic road passenger transport; to ensure the financial stability of enterprises and implementation of the assigned indicators.