RUSSIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER SAYS MONGOLIA-RUSSIA-CHINA ECONOMIC CORRIDOR WILL BE OPERATIONAL BY 2018
The Russia-Mongolia-China economic corridor will be operational for the transport of goods by 2018, Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said during an intergovernmental meeting between Mongolian, Russian, and Chinese transport officials, reported TASS News Agency.
“We expect that this agreement will come into effect and will be ratified shortly in our countries. And haulage via the Russia-Mongolia-China corridor will open next year, in 2018,” the minister said.
Transport officials from the three countries are taking part in a meeting to review preparations to implement an intergovernmental agreement on international transport via the Asian network of highways. The meeting’s purpose is to work out the details for the transport agreement to use the Asian highway network. The three countries signed the agreement on December 8, 2016 in Moscow.
The officials are focusing on a multitude of issues including ensuring safety on the roads, loosening restrictions and regulations, determining tariffs and standards.
A list of priority projects for the economic corridor program was approved, according to the Russian Transport Minister.
“This is the development of the central railway corridor, organizing transit trucking activities on the Tianjin-Ulaanbaatar-Ulan Ude route and paving a road along this route,” Sokolov added.
Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov told TASS news that first cargoes will be transported along the highway in 2018.
“The issue of obtaining bilateral and multilateral permission for hauling different types of cargoes between the countries is now under discussion. A data bank is being put together with a list of shipments that will include oil cargoes and unified containers,” he stated.
Sokolov stressed that Moscow’s transport policy has taken center stage nowadays within the framework of trilateral cooperation with Russia, Mongolia and China. He also confirmed that the Russian Transport Ministry is ready to bolster transit haulage along the corridors and routes between Russia, China and Mongolia.
The economic corridor was approved by three heads of state at the Tashkent summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in June 2016.