On 17 November 2021, TRACECA and UIC held a joint Workshop on the Development of Container Transport in the framework of TRACECA

In order to implement the recommendations envisaged in the Concept for the Development of Container Transport up to 2030, two main topics of the Workshop - Tariffication Structures and measures to support transportation involving several modes of transport were defined jointly with the UIC.

Mr. Philippe Van den Bosch, representative of the UIC Freight Department, shared his vision and experience of tariffication structures, as well as information on national funding measures and programmes for combined transport in the EU countries.

"TRACECA attaches particular importance to developing and improving the competitiveness of multimodal transport, where rail transport plays an important role," said Mr A.A Assavbayev, Secretary General.

During the workshop, speakers from Bulgaria, Tajikistan, Turkey and Ukraine also spoke about the structure of tariff formation and tariffication policy adopted at the national level.  

The participants of the meeting noted the need to take measures to reduce the transport component in the corridor countries for the development of container transport and to support transportation through cooperation between public and private structures at the international level.

Considering that the transport systems of the member-states (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Ukraine) have different legal and trade regimes within the EU, EAEU and CIS countries, modern conditions require improvement of commercial conditions for cargo transportation.

In the future, TRACECA and UIC will continue to actively work on determining the most appropriate model for the subsequent discussion of unified principles for supporting combined transport for 13 countries. The workshop was the first step towards the implementation of recommendations envisaged within the above-mentioned Concept.

It should be noted that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the PS IPC TRACECA and the UIC was signed on July 17, 2003 in Baku, Azerbaijan, taking into account the UIC competence as a major international cooperation organization that contributes to its strengthening, as well as the role of the Intergovernmental Commission responsible for the implementation of the Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for Development of the Europe-the Caucasus–Asia Corridor.