Regional economic cooperation and transport links are an important mechanism for development

The Working Group was attended by responsible representatives of the BSEC member states: from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, as well as representatives of related organizations, observers and international structures, including the PS IGC TRACECA and the IRU.

Within the Working Group, a range of issues, including the Draft Memorandum of Understanding on the Development of Multimodal Ferry Lines, coordination of the Black Sea Ring Highway development, development of sea routes, simplification of cargo delivery ways, facilitation of cargo transportation by road, Project "BSEC PERMIT System", development of intermodal transportation was discussed.

The Agenda of the meeting also covered the draft Plan of Action of the BSEC Working Group on Transport for the period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022, as well as cooperation with international organizations and BSEC partners on sectoral dialogue.

In particular, the countries’ presentations were heard during the WG, where the participants pointed out the importance of the international community efforts, various interregional and regional structures and organizations whose activities are aimed at strengthening the transport dialogue and ensuring reliable transport and trade connections.

As part of the Agenda of the WG, TRACECA presentation provided an information on current initiatives and directions aimed at improving border crossing procedures, introducing electronic documents, harmonizing requirements for motor vehicles with regard to their mass and dimensions, developing container transportation and digitalizing transport procedures was also heard.

Moreover, TRACECA and BSEC have made efforts this year by jointly developing a Plan of Action (Roadmap) on application of unified harmonized requirements for international transport in order to create the most favourable conditions in current realities of the TRACECA and BSEC regions, thereby promoting the eTIR and eCMR application. In addition, taking into consideration the BSEC region, efforts will be made from TRACECA part to promote initiatives on development of container transportation in the Black Sea region.

It should be noted that the Memorandum of Understanding between the PS IGC TRACECA and the PERMIS (PERMIS - Permanent International Secretariat of the BSEC) was signed on December 13, 2007 in Astana, the Republic of Kazakhstan.