Joint Eurasian Economic Union member states' logistics companies business project on development of accelerated containerized railway transportation of agricultural and agro-industrial products – Eurasian Agroexpress
is aimed at developing exports of agricultural products from Eurasian Economic Union member states to China, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and other countries of South-East and Central Asia using the integration component of the Project routes.
The ideology of the Project is that the integrated use of transport infrastructure between the EAEU countries and neighboring countries will ensure optimization of logistics costs, expand their opportunities for international cooperation, including attracting investment in cross-border transport projects of the EAEU countries.
As a result of joint work with the executive authorities of the Republic of
Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and the Eurasian Economic Commission, the participants of the Project at the level of transport and logistics centers and logistics operators have been identified, the potential cargo base and consolidation points of products in terms of its demand and competitive opportunities in the markets of the countries concerned have been calculated, the structure of Project management bodies has been planned.
At this stage, the participants of the Project, with the confirmed partnership of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), are national logistics operators and existing wholesale-distribution and transport-logistics centers (hereinafter ORC / TLC):
- JSC KTZ Express (multimodal transport operator from the Republic of Kazakhstan);
- JSC RZD Logistics (multimodal transport operator from the Russian Federation);
- Bremino Group LLC (Republic of Belarus);
- JSC Slavtrans-Service (Russian Federation).
Implementation of the Project is focused on achieving a number of targets:
- Provision of agro-industrial cargo transportation of 500 thousand tons per year by 2025 and 1,000 thousand tons per year by 2030 in the direction to China (in the pilot stage the volumes will be about 60-100 thousand tons per year or 1-2 container trains per week). Supply of up to 400 thousand tons annually by 2025 and 900 thousand tons annually by 2030 in the direction of Uzbekistan (in the pilot stage the volumes will be about 40-60 thousand tons annually or one container train a week).
- Organization of the Eurasian network of the ORC / TLC for the supply of agro-industrial complex products to China and Uzbekistan.
- Ensuring for exporters the rate of transportation of agro-industrial complex products at the level competitive in relation to sea freight in the amount of about $ 5 thousand.
- Reducing the total delivery time to 10-14 days in the direction of China, and up to 5-7 days in the direction of Uzbekistan.
- Providing exporters with digital services on the basis of a platform of integrated organization of supply of agro-industrial complex products.
The solution of this large-scale task requires the coordination of many interests of a wide range of participants - national business (including producers, logistics operators, operators of the ORC/TLC), with the issues of administration and control by the regulatory bodies of the executive authorities of the Union member-states.
The existing world practice of project management of a comparable level of complexity shows that the necessary measure for coordination and control, for building clear and transparent communications between the parties concerned, for the organization of their cross-functional interaction is the formation of the project office.
The Directorate of the Project (project office) is de jure established in the form of a non-profit organization, the founders of which include the national operators of railway logistics and national operators of ORC / TLC defined by the executive authorities of the states - members of the Union. Organization of the project office in a non-profit form creates a working regime, which is based on a balanced consideration of the interests of the project participants.