Federal officials will solve problems of coastal port infrastructure

For the continued existence of coastal ports, it is necessary to sign a transit agreement regulating road transport, create a port special economic zone, update the infrastructure and remove administrative barriers. Otherwise, soon there will simply be no ports left. This was discussed during a special round table in Vladivostok. However, when the authorities will pay attention to the needs of the ports and whether they will pay attention at all, company representatives do not know. The organizers of the table promised to tell federal officials about the problems of coastal ports.

Top managers of large federal companies, graduates of the Moscow School of Management under the Skolkovo Executive MBA program, held a round table in Vladivostok on the problems of coastal port infrastructure. Representatives of the Primorsky Territory administration and representatives of Vladivostok ports took part in it.

Director of the Department of Industry and Transport of the Administration of the Primorsky Territory Igor Khrushchev, in particular, noted that only the federation can solve the problems of developing the transport and port infrastructure of the region. "International transport corridors "Primorye-1" (Harbin - Suifenhe - Pogranichny - Vladivostok (Nakhodka/Vostochny) - ports of the APR and Suifenhe - Pogranichny - Ussuriysk - Vladivostok (Vostochny / Nakhodka) - "Kommersant") and "Primorye-2" ( Hunchun-Kamyshovaya - Posyet (Zarubino) - ports of the Asia-Pacific region) have been listed on paper in the sectoral federal target program “Development of Transport in Russia” for more than ten years. It is necessary to sign a transit agreement, since the laws of the Russian Federation do not yet regulate road transport. This agreement will provide an opportunity for parity between Chinese and Russian carriers,” Mr. Khrushchev told the audience.

According to him, the creation of a port special economic zone (POEZ) in the port of Vostochny (Nakhodka - Kommersant) will allow us to focus on the development of transit, servicing wholesale trade and goods distribution. “And the development of the port in Trinity Bay (Zarubino settlement, the design capacity will be about 60 million tons per year - Kommersant), located near the Chinese border, and the creation of effective infrastructure could be a good project aimed at developing transport and establishing technologies service and development of cooperation with China, South and North Korea,” he added.

Port workers noted in their reports that today the key problems of ports are related to low cargo traffic and the impossibility of updating infrastructure. According to the representative of the Vladivostok Sea Trade Port (VMTP) Alexey Tkachenko, the port is located within the city and is physically limited in territory. “However, even regardless of the economic situation, it is fully loaded. Recently, there has even been some growth in cargo handling.

This is due to the fact that the seaport is universal. However, we are sometimes forced to accept cargo at berths that are not equipped for this, due to the lack of the necessary infrastructure,” said Mr. Tkachenko.

Vladivostok Duma Deputy, General Director of DalRybPort LLC Lyudmila Talabaeva noted that the fishing port is not busy today. “This is due to the fact that today we are 100% focused on fish products. We have small territories and berths, not very deep. It is impossible to ship on the salmon track by rail, since there are not enough sections; the Far Eastern Railway has very poor cross-country ability. In this regard, fishermen from Kamchatka and Sakhalin are looking for other ways, which aggravates the situation. If the state does not pay attention to fishermen in terms of developing the railway, railway cars, containers, after a while there will simply be no fishing ports left,” added Ms. Talabaeva. She also complained about administrative problems, noting that “customs and Rosselkhoznadzor create a lot of barriers.”

The deputy was supported by representatives of shipping lines, who stated that the volume of cargo turnover in ports is largely reduced due to bureaucratic burdens. According to the representative of the Far Eastern branch of Maersk (engaged in sea transportation - Kommersant) Kirill Atamanov, the company has negative experience in passing cargo through customs control. “During the transition to new customs procedures, almost all container lines were forced to stand at the port for more than a week. This is due to the fact that there were no coordinated actions between the port and customs employees,” noted Mr. Atamanov.

The organizers of the round table promised to take into account all the mentioned problems and complaints in a special memorandum addressed to federal officials. According to the moderator of the round table Denis Alexandrov, upon returning to Moscow there will be a meeting with the Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Igor Levitin, at which the problems of coastal ports will be reported to him. “In the port infrastructure, it is necessary to resort to public-private partnership mechanisms, in particular, under the Trinity project, and use them today to complete the renovation in a short time. Keeping in mind that China is actively building nearby, we must not waste time. This is necessary so that modern ports appear in the Far East and we become a significant player in the cargo turnover market,” concluded Mr. Alexandrov.

One of the round table participants, who wished to remain anonymous, commented to Kommersant after the end of the event on the alleged background of the event. According to him, the round table is “only the appearance of a real discussion of accumulated problems.” “The proposed ideas are not new, the market is developing, and the programs continue to be programs for years. They have little connection with the realities of business,” he noted. Vladivostok ports today are working to the limit, since they are not intended for international traffic, but were created to serve only coastal shipping in the Far East, the expert believes. “The efficiency of the port in terms of the speed of processing imported container cargo and the speed of customs procedures is very low. If the situation remains at the same level as now, then we can predict that the ports of Vladivostok will simply not be able to handle the growing flow of imported cargo. The development of port and port infrastructure and easing the bureaucratic burden when goods pass through ports can change the situation,” he added.

Sergey Sysoykin

A memorandum of assistance was extended to the ports