On 21-22 November 2016 Kiev hosted the Meeting of the Permanent Representatives (National Secretaries) of the PS IGC TRACECA

Two days meeting was focused on exchange of opinions of the participants on various issues, to be intended for further discussion to the next Meeting of the Permanent Secretariat or adoption within the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA. 

In particular, the participants of the Meeting discussed the draft Action Plan for implementation of the Strategy of the IGC TRACECA for development of the international transport corridor Europe-the Caucasus-Asia for the period 2016-2026 elaborated on the basis of the Master Plan TRACECA and proposals of the Parties for 2017-2020. 

Special attention was concentrated on the accession of the MLA Parties to the Agreement on the development of Multimodal Transport TRACECA. Representatives of the countries were informed on the status of accession of Ukraine to the Agreement on the development of Multimodal Transport TRACECA and on the process of carrying out internal procedures necessary to accede to the Agreement by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Moldova and Romania. 

The National Secretaries of the Parties agreed to take necessary measures to forward their positions to the Depositary within optimal time. It should also be noted that the Agreement on the development of Multimodal Transport TRACECA is open for all Parties for accession.

In addition, for the purposes of the implementation of the Agreement on the development of Multimodal Transport TRACECA, the representatives of TRACECA member states agreed to continue work on the elboration of a single multimodal transport document by organizing further WG meetings and web-conferences. 

As one of the important point of the Agenda, the issue of cooperation between the PS IGC TRACECA and CAREC, Silk Road Chamber of International Commerce and Crans Montana Forum based on the drafts Memorandums of Understanding, the countries agreed to continue the negotiation process, informing on the status of the negotiations accordingly.

A number of initiatives were of great importance among participants, different stakeholders and decision makers. 

Mr. Mircea Ciopraga, Secretary General of the PS IGC TRACECA presented to the participants the information on the intention of the Hellenic Republic to obtain the observer status in the Intergovernmental Commission. The MLA Parties Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan expressed their consent to grant the observer status to Greece. 

TRACECA countries expressed their interest on the perspectives of cooperation of the experts of the PS IGC TRACECA with Coordinating Committee for the development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR). It should be mentioned that the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and then through Turkey and Ukraine to Europe. 

Mr. Volodymyr Omelyan, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine and Chairman of the IGC TRACECA stressed, that Ukraine is ready to present a number of initiatives aimed at increasing the efficiency of the TRACECA corridor. Namely, Ukrainian party proposed the development of the joint action plan on multimodal solutions for transportation within the TRACECA corridor, digitalization of the TRACECA transport corridor and implementation of the e-logistics system, initiating new EU technical assistance projects within the TRACECA Programme, enhancing connectivity of TRACECA Corridor and the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).

At the same time, the initiative on the web-based software solution concept “Datamall Logistics and Customs IT Platform” were presented and proposed by Mrs. Maria Magdalena Grigore, Permanent Representative (National Secretary) of the PS IGC TRACECA in Romania. This initiative is designed to simplify transport activities and information exchange between all stakeholders involved in supply chain along whole TRACECA corridor.

Based on the information with regards to the initiative on the organization of freight transportation between the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas in communication between the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia corridor and the Trans-European Transport Network   provided by the Ukrainian Party, member-states of the IGC TRACECA expressed their interest in the enlargement of the geography of TRACECA corridor. Ukraine, as Chair country in the IGC TRACECA will inform the potential participants on the existing procedures of the accession to the MLA TRACECA.

The interested parties also agreed to work out the position on the development of prospects of the TRACECA corridor in view of the enlarged indicative Trans-European Transport Network.

Taking into account TRACECA plan of further activities for next 2017 year, and based on the response of the Uzbekistan, the Permanent Secretariat addressed to the Armenian Party with the proposal to assume the chairmanship in the IGC for the forthcoming period in accordance with rotation upon alphabetical order. Mr. Gagik Grigoryan, the National Secretary of the IGC TRACECA in Armenia has informed on the readiness of the Republic of Armenia to take Presidency for the next Chairmanship in the IGC. 

On the outcomes of the meeting, the member-states of the IGC TRACECA came to common agreement to examine all the initiatives presented within the meeting in Kiev and prepare proposals on their possible practical implementation.

Presentations of the meeting participants are available for download here:

1. Mr. Julijus Glebovas - (english version only) Freight Transportation between Baltic and Black seas

2. Ms. Maria Magdalena Grigore - (english version) Datamall Logistics and Customs IT Platform

3. Oleksandr Fedorov - (english version only) Digitalization of the TRACECA transport corridor. Implementation of the E-Logistics System

4. Mr. Mehran Khamisizadeh - (english version only) Commercialization of the International Corridors Passing Through I.R.Iran

5. Mr. Dins Merirands - (russian version only) Latvia - Gates to the Northern Europe