“Ukraine's participation in the TRACECA program is one of the main ways of implementing the state policy in the field of transport”- stressed by Mr. Volodymyr Omelyan, Chairman of the IGC TRACECA and Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine

Mr. Volodymyr Omelyan, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA welcomed all the participants of the meeting and underlined the necessity of the meeting which will contribute to the further development of the transport corridor TRACECA and development of Euro-Asian region as a whole.

During his speech, Mr. Omelyan informed the participants and guests of the IGC on a consistent work carrying out within creating a modern transport infrastructure, new technologies, increasing flow of traffic in order to ensure integration of the transport system of Ukraine in the European one due to the association with the EU. In particular, in accordance with the European directives and regulations, the implementation of which is envisaged in the Association Agreement, the law "On Railway Transport" was drafted for the purposes of introduction a new approach to the organization of transportation, liberalize the rail market and radically change the principles of tariff setting.

According to the Association Agreement one of the priorities of the bilateral cooperation is to improve the movement of passengers and goods, increase traffic fluidity between Ukraine, the EU and third countries in the region by removing administrative, technical, frontier and other barriers, to develop transport network and infrastructure, particularly in the main transport axes that unite Ukraine and the EU. Moreover, in accordance with the best European practices a law on the order settlement of toll roads functioning is also drafted.

In order to develop the geography of routes Ukraine, Mr. Omelyan emphasized that huge works are made within the extension of the combined container trains such as "Viking" and "Zubr" between the countries of the Caucasus and Asia. Container train "Viking" is an example of the connection between sea container lines of the Baltic region with a similar system of the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas.

In the road sector the transfer of local roads under the responsibility of the respective regional state administrations with simultaneous sources of financial resources needed to implement the relevant functions is provided.

Since the main reason for the outflow of goods in transit is excessive bureaucratization in the ports, the Government of Ukraine is working on simplification of control procedures (reducing the number of regulatory bodies for ships and cargo registration in ports (from 6 to 1-2), reduction of port charges, improvement of infrastructure and attraction of the investors by introducing a new procedure for concluding agreements.

Concluding his speech, Mr. Omelyan expressed confidence that the main condition for the further providing of a coherent transport policy is to unite common efforts to optimize the work of national and international transport systems for the establishment of efficient, reliable transport links between Europe, the Caucasus and Asia.