Business Dialogue Company - forums, expo, conferences.
Русская версия  English version
On main page Sitemap Support
Company | Projects | Seminars | Services | Partners | Press | | | Archive
/18.12.11/

This year, pressing issues for the development of the rail industry were discussed under the banner of the conference’s key theme: “Industry and Government Interaction: the Formalisation of Mutual responsibility”. More than 600 representatives of the transport market and related industries took part in the discussions over the course of two days.

In his speech, Deputy Transport Minister, Andrei Nedosekov, talked about how issues of partnership and responsibility had become particularly acute in light of the marked shortage of freight capacity in the railway network. According to Mr Nedosekov, the time has come to return to the tools specified in railway transport policy documents, the use of which had been postponed due to the onset of the economic crisis. He sees one of the main conditions for building long-term partnerships between the state and industry to be long-term tariff rates.   

First Vice-President of JSC Russian Railways, Vadim Morozov talked about the need to make new, practical steps in the development of rail transport, particularly in regards to the mechanisms for mutual accountability between the state and industry. In his speech, Mr Morozov drew attention to the fact that, in the process of developing a legal framework, there is a need to make changes to the plan for implementing the Target Model of the Freight Services Market. Thus, according to him, clarification about the transport of empty rolling stock, the terms of its location on the rail infrastructure, and solutions for restoring central management technology to unmanned fleet of multipurpose carriages is required.  What is more, Russian Railways believes that, in light of the problems with the formation of an effective rolling stock management system, it is advisable to postpone the start of the experiment to introduce the institute of local carriers. The decision on unifying tariffs for empty mileage carriages, regardless of the class of goods carried, will be moved to the first half of 2012.

 The Government and Russian Railways initiative to consolidate a large pool of multipurpose carriages under a single management holding and the related prospect of deregulation in the price range of carriages added a certain acuity to the debate. Representatives of the operator services community talked about their willingness to consider concrete proposals from carriers, but would like to have a guaranteed rate of return of 1,400 rubles per carriage per day. In general, the position of the Not-for-Profit Board of Market Participants of Operators of Rolling Stock Services, as expressed by the Chairman of the Presidium, Sergei Maltsev, is that the short-term positive effects of consolidation may result in Russian Railways once again monopolising the market, as well as increased pressure on the economy as a whole. This is why such measures can only be taken for a certain period of time.

At the same time, proponents of consolidation pointed out that this is one way to improve the efficiency of the rail network, and this will benefit all market participants. Vyacheslav Petrenko, Head of Marketing, Freight and Tariff Policy at Russian Railways, underlined that “when talking about pros and cons, we shouldn’t forget about the interests of the shipper.” When operating a single fleet, he said, the load on the infrastructure will be decreased and so too will the cost of freight. What is more, according to Yelena Kunayeva, General Director of the Centre for Transport Service, the consolidation of a large pool under a single management holding will provide a basis for deregulating carriage tariffs, which will put employees of rolling stock operators and Russian Railways in the same position.

The main problem facing Russian Railways today – a problem that stands in the way of the development of the entire economy – is the lack of infrastructure. This was unanimously stated by conference participants. According to Salman Babayev, Vice-President of Russian Railways, the current situation is also due to the incompatibility of plans to develop the extractive industries with the potential offered by the rail infrastructure. A systemic solution to the problem could be a network contract, which would act as a tool for formalising the mutual responsibility of the state and industry. However, such a contract can be adopted no earlier than 2015, and then only after it has been tested on the network, according to Valery Reshetnikov, Senior Vice-President of Russian Railways.

Throughout the course of the conference participants time and again reiterated the belief that the State’s leading role in the development of the rail industry is a basic condition for economic growth in general. The words of Innokenty Ivanov, Partner and Head of Field Infrastructure and Transport at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, provided an interesting summary: according to Mr Ivanov, Russia needs a revolution in infrastructure, because the time for evolutionary change has passed.

Moscow,Staraya Basmannaya street,
38/2 build. 3
Tel.: +7 (495) 988-18-00
Tel./Fax: +7 (495) 988-28-01
info@businessdialog.ru
www.old.businessdialog.ru
Copyright Businessdialog, 2007-2024
Веб-дизайн, разработка и продвижение сайта - InterLabs.