The VIII International Conference “Transport Service Market: Cooperation and Partnership”, organised by the Business Dialogue company and the business magazine RZD-Partner, began work today, 7 December 2010

Vadim Morozov, First Vice President of RZD, noted in his speech at the plenary session that only through joint efforts could a full-strength infrastructure basis be created for the steady growth of the economy and for an increase in our country’s global competitiveness and in the quality of life of its population.

“In the concluding phase of reform, our industry faces a number of most important objectives. In the first instance we must seriously step up our work on bringing the tariffs for freight transportation onto an economically justified level and bringing the tariff system in line with modern economic realities,” said Mr Morozov in his speech. “We must also ensure that we actively develop our network contract models and improve the tariff policy on rail transport. We must submit a strategic model for the rail freight transportation market up to 2015 for government approval and develop a plan to implement this model and embark on directly fulfilling it.”

Sergei Shishkarev, chairman of the State Duma Transport Committee, who also spoke during the conference, said: “In addition to staging the Olympics in Sochi in 2014 we now have the football World Cup in 2018. Preparing for these two most important events will require a huge amount of work. Our transport must become modern and must maintain its safety and security.”

Participants speaking as part of the conference programme noted that one of the most important issues is creating a legal and regulatory framework for rail transport. We still do not have a legal basis for cooperation between the infrastructure owner and the carrier, rules for innovative access to the infrastructure, rules for licensing transportation business, and more besides.

After the plenary session the research and development company Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) and the Tikhvin Railway Car Building Plant signed an agreement in the area of innovations. According to the agreement, its main aim is to meet the demand for innovative railway products and to bring them to market in the Russian Federation and the CIS countries.

In reply to questions from journalists, Igor Tsyplakov, chairman of the board of directors of the Tikhvin Railway Car Building Plant, stated: “We are aiming for long-term cooperation which will enable us to fully realise the manufacturing, scientific and technical potential of the parties to the agreement.”

Oleg Sienko, general director of the UVZ corporation, had this to say about the signing of the agreement: “I am sure that our cooperation will help us to bring innovative products to the railway equipment market.”

After a dinner the participants continued their work with a panel discussion entitled “Market without inventory fleet”. The moderator of the discussion was Alexander Retyunin, editor in chief of the Gudok newspaper and the RZD-Partner magazine. The participants discussed issues related to building an effective model for developing the industry, creating a fully competitive environment in the operators’ market, developing the business of captive operators, and much more.

Gennady Talashkin, first deputy general director of RZDstroy, stated: “We are expecting a lot of this conference, because apart from freight carriers, it is also being attended by the main organisations that represent the railway construction industry. By mixing in this circle and discussing matters concerning the innovative aspects of business, we can always come to certain positive joint results. It is obvious that innovative processes cannot be far removed from the investment component. In order to meet the long-term objectives which RZD and the state are setting before us, we must plan this work precisely on the basis of modernising the existing technologies and we must find solutions through joint collective discussion.”