The VIII International Conference “Transport Service Market: Cooperation and Partnership” concluded its work on December 2010.

The work of the second day of the conference began with round table discussions on the themes of “Tariff policy”, “Transport engineering”, “Financial mechanisms for sector development”, “Interaction at railway and port conjunction” and “Interaction at railway and port conjunction”.

“In the third phase of reform the sale of a large number of subsidiary companies will take place, and this is where the question of developing the infrastructure will be important. Without serious injections of finance there will be big problems with the infrastructure, especially in the Far East,” said RZD Senior Vice President Vadim Morozov. “The role of infrastructure stocks, which the company is proposing to issue, may be very high, and the burden of debt will not be placed on RZD. The effect of investment in the infrastructure will be calculated by ministries and departments. But it is understood that this is an increase in the carriage of freight, a budgetary effect for the state, and the creation of jobs, but we will have to have a very long dialogue with the regulators and the state in order to be able to start issuing infrastructure stocks.”

After lunch there was a presentation of the CargoIndex International project, led by Alexander Retyunin, editor in chief of the Gudok newspaper and the RZD-Partner magazine, and Anatoly Khodorovsky, scientific editor of Gudok.

At the conclusion of the conference Alexei Vorotilkin, vice president of RZD, said: “We’ve had quite a constructive dialogue. We heard proposals from manufacturers, proprietors and repairers of infrastructure. We shall carry out our actions systematically in order to obtain the result of efficient working of rolling stock.”

Sergei Palkin, vice president of the Association of Railway Equipment Manufacturers, expressed his opinion in an interview with Gudok: “This conference is undoubtedly of great significance for everyone involved in railway transportation, and that means both the rolling stock owners and the operators and the proprietor of the infrastructure, RZD, and the whole mass of manufacturers of rolling stock and infrastructure components. Without cooperation between all these areas it is very difficult to ensure the effective working of railway transport. And the dialogue which took place enabled people to discuss all the key issues in order to coordinate their actions for the coming short-term period. These conferences need to be moved to an annual format, since times change very dynamically.”

“It is especially noteworthy that manufacturers of modern railway equipment were widely represented at this conference. We have to understand that without this equipment we cannot achieve the indicators of efficiency that the market demands of us. And the manufacturers themselves need modernisation, which requires good investments. Sometimes the proprietors of these businesses are afraid of taking risks about whether there will be demand for this or that product in order to purchase new technologies and foreign equipment. At these conferences they definitely pick up signals about what will be in demand and in approximately what quantities. Thus they can weigh up and assess their markets and develop their businesses,” said Sergei Palkin.

At the official closing ceremony Vadim Morozov, first vice president of RZD, summed up the event by saying: “Support was expressed for the main aspects of the strategic model for the railway freight transportation market. Much was said on issues concerning the creation of a freight wagon exchange, and many interesting models were presented. I believe that our discussion on the topic of operating a wagon fleet must be continued further.”

“The question of consolidating the operator business received widespread coverage at the conference. Views were expressed on the need to make changes to federal laws and for them to be reviewed rapidly in the State Duma. Moreover, the need to prepare transport for possible methods of attracting investment in rail transport, including by securing state loans, private companies and concessionary contracts, and the need to develop the RZD holding company as a business-oriented structure, was noted more than once. We also heard an agreed position from market players on supporting a strategic market model. In a word, the need has emerged to consolidate the efforts of all professional players in the market and freight consignors in matters concerning substantiating common positions on the need to attract sources of funds in order to develop the infrastructure and to discuss it in the federal executive authority bodies. And it is time to boost this work,” said Vadim Morozov. “I would say in particular that the need has appeared to prepare transport for holding the football World Cup in 2018. We must understand that there is a great deal to be done in this area, including by RZD.”

Vladimir Yakunin, the president of RZD, spoke at the closing ceremony of the conference: “Everything that was said at the conference which has taken place during these days seems very important and topical from the point of view of the future development of railway transport. Today we have to talk not about the reform of railway transport but about the development of the rail transportation market, of RZD, of the participants in this market, of both freight and passenger transportation. Reform cannot go on for ever, otherwise it starts to lose its meaning. The time is coming when we shall have to draw a line and then begin to plan the development of the business of the company and the industry.”

“The formula of public participation in the development of the railway industry has recommended itself positively as a valuable instrument for studying the changes taking place, and as a forum not only for practising business people but also for representatives of government and of the scientific community. I believe that we must take this form further, which is especially important on the threshold of examination at a Government session of the results of the third phase of restructuring railway transport in the Russian Federation, which is due to be concluded in the near future,” said V. Yakunin.

The VIII International Conference “Transport Service Market: Cooperation and Partnership” took place from 7 to 8 December in the President Hotel. It was organised by the Business Dialogue company and the RZD-Partner business magazine.

We look forward to meeting you in 2011!