Barents Regional Council calls for transport strategy
A well-functioning and well-developed transportation infrastructure, both in the North-South and the East-West direction consisting of railroads, roads and air traffic, is a necessity to secure continuous growth in the region.
The Barents Regional Council adopted its transport statement when they met in Tromsø, Northern Norway last Friday. The Council consists of the regional leaders from all 13 member regions within the Barents cooperation.
The statement from the Council says a sustainable transport solution for the region best can be secured by working out a Barents Transport Strategy. Such strategy should seek to summarize and coordinate all the national and regional initiatives and thus serve as a guideline for development of a sustainable and well-functional multimodal transport infrastructure in the Barents Region.
The regional leaders in Finland, Sweden, Russia and Norway says the Barents Region is bridging central Europe with the Arctic and this makes the region an important gateway for transport and logistics operations serving the regions industry and future extraction of oil and gas as well as other natural resources in the Arctic.
The Council furthermore sees this in relation with the up-coming shipping via the Northern Sea Route.
Later on this week, the Norwegian Minister of Transport and Communication Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa will meet with here Swedish colleague Åsa Torstensson in Haparanda, Northern Sweden to discuss joint efforts in developing a northern cross-border transport strategy.
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