The 28th plenary meeting of the Coordinating Council on Transsiberian Transportation (CCTT) took place in Nur-Sultan on 19 and 20 September. The meeting was chaired by Oleg Belozerov, CEO of RZD, and was attended by over 200 delegates from 20 countries, including high-level representatives from the logistics industry, railroads, ministries and international organisations.

Mr Belozerov opened the discussions with a report on market development and reported an increase of 23% on the Transiberian route in 2018. This success, he said, was due to a number of factors, including:

• the tireless efforts of partners such as UTLC, RZD Logistics and Transcontainer, as well as institutions such as customs
• the increasing number of new connections, including connections to Korea and Belgium
• effective marketing
• use of new technology
• adequate and fairly stable pricing
• ongoing safety and security improvements
• infrastructure investments, including terminal development
• new scheduling processes

Before giving the floor to Gennady Bessonov, Secretary General of CCTT, Mr Belozerov saluted the immense work accomplished by CCTT and thanked all of the stakeholders involved in its working groups, which focus primarily on transport development, IT solutions and legal aspects.

Port development and digital advancement were very much at the heart of the various reports provided. The meeting participants received information on numerous initiatives in this context, such as:

• cooperation with customs authorities on the “Security Train” project
• cooperation with UIC in relation to electronic seals
• the launch of an information portal to facilitate information exchange between CCTT and its partners
• development of a digital platform intended to be a “one stop shop” for organising international transport

Evgeny Charkin, CIO of RZD, presented numerous digital initiatives underway at Russian Railways. He gave an overview of progress in relation to blockchain technology, and provided insights into the INTERTRAN pilot project, which focuses on implementing measures for the effective development of multimodal transport in the Asia-Pacific region.

A number of key stakeholders in Eurasian corridors took the floor and engaged in an interesting debate. Hans Reinhard spoke from a forwarder’s perspective, while Uwe Leuschner (DB Cargo) and Thomas Kargl (RCG), who operate trains from Asia to Germany and Austria, also provided their input.

The second day of the event was dedicated to partner associations, such as OSJD, CIT, UIC, etc.

UIC, which has a collaboration agreement (MoU) with CCTT, was represented by Sandra Géhénot, Freight Director, who reported on the development of freight activities at UIC and, in particular, on the joint initiative between CCTT and UIC on the interoperability and business implementation of electronic seals on Eurasian corridors.