Prime Minister during the Transport Conference in Odessa: Ukraine has unique positioning, it's exactly the time to develop our transport potential

Ukraine is a state with unique logistics and transit potential, which needs attention and development incentives. This was stated by Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman during the High Level International Transport Conference "Integrated Transport Corridors Europe-Asia".

The Head of Government highlighted, the Conference is one of the principal platforms to discuss key issues in the development of a global transport and logistics network, after all - they require decision-making at a high political level. And it is no mere chance that Odessa was chosen as the venue for the event, as Ukraine is a hub of transportation routes connecting Europe and Asia. "We have ports, we have a common border with the EU, we have an agreement on free trade with our European partners, a visa-free regime introduced. We are developing our railway network that will increase its reliability year by year. We demonstrate economic growth. Therefore, we should join the potential we possess with that of our partners", stressed Volodymyr Groysman.

He added that the largest possible trade turnover via the territory of Ukraine, under favorable conditions for transit, could reach USD 300 billion, which exceeds the current level twentyfold. The work in this direction is underway. It includes the large-scale program for the development of the road network, the corporation of "Ukrzaliznytsya", the liberalization of access to aviation, road, water transport, rail-and-ferry services. "We will promote river transport, we see the development potential of inland shipping in Ukraine", emphasized Volodymyr Groysman.

Particular attention is paid to the reform of a tariff policy, first of all, in ports and on railways in all directions of cargo delivery. Thus, preferential tariff conditions for the south-west-south rail transportation were established within the limits of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. This week the Government adopted a resolution to reduce all port charges from January 1, 2018 for non-transit cargo by 20% and 75% for oil and products tankers in the Port of Yuzhny. "We meet with businesses, and they support our policy on development of the transport component of the economy", said Volodymyr Groysman. “Recently, we have set up the Logistics Coordination Council that will become a high-level platform for decision-making in terms of development of our logistics infrastructure. Apart from that, we have established created the State Service for Marine and Inland Transport to provide new quality management in this area.