Russia – your transport link between Europe and Asia
According to the federal transport strategy presented by Prime Minister Putin yesterday, Russia is to become a vital infrastructure link between Europe and Asia. That could open new possibilities for the ports in the Russian North.
In the strategy plan covering the period until 2030, major stress is put on the facilitation of transport connections between Europe and Asia.
-Today only about one percent of all trade between Europe and Asia runs across Russian territory. This is a very strange figure considering that Russia is located between Europe and Asia, Premier Putin said in the meeting. –We have to turn the unique geographic location of the country into our competitive advantage, he added, the government website reports.
The document, includes 13,5 trillion RUB investments in the transport sector by year 2015, five trillion of which will be federal money.
Strengthening of infrastructure between the Russian East and West will inevitably open new opportunities also for ports in the Russian North, including Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. These ports could potentially develop into vital hubs for transit shipping of containers and other goods.
The transport strategy also includes objectives on 50 percent cuts in climate gas emissions from the Russian transport sector, as well as a 30 percent reduction in transport fuel consumption.
Prime Minister Putin in his presentation of the strategy document made in Novosibirsk also confirmed that Russian authorities want to cut the number of people living in areas without proper road connection from today’s ten percent of the population to only two percent.
