TRANSPORT AS THE BACKBONE OF THE ECONOMY
KEY CONCLUSIONS
The creation of a transportation framework will support the development of the economy and regions
“We are doing everything we can to attract as much investor funds as possible, above all for the creation of a backbone transport network in the country and for highways. The Ministry of Transport has done a tremendous job in this regard together with the regions. We already understand what federal highways will be built in the future until 2030 as well as which regional and municipal ones will be built. Our job is to link them in terms of timing and priorities, so that by 2024, despite all the difficulties with the pandemic, we are able to fulfil the presidential decree on getting 85% of roads up to the required condition in the country’s 105 largest agglomerations and getting 60% of regional roads to the required condition,” Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Marat Khusnullin said.
“We are working together on various transport systems in the Russian Federation, in particular on the backbone network of highways. […] How do we create a framework in order to judiciously build roads on which the population and goods will travel? This will happen with the digitalization of the industry. It’s impossible to do without digitalization,” Russian Minister of Transport Vitaly Savelyev said.
“Today, we are living in the digital era, but the reality is that you can’t move goods using your smartphone. You need ports, airports, cars, trains, and airplanes. But technology can increase the speed of transportation and help people and goods move safely and efficiently,” Qatar Navigation Q.P.S.C. President and CEO Abdulrahman Essa Al-Mannai said.
PROBLEMS
Development of transport infrastructure over a large area
“Of course, the country’s transport framework can’t be strengthened without the development of transport connectivity. In this regard, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), which makes up 20% of our country, is experiencing colossal problems. Thanks to the decision of our country’s president and government, much has been done in recent years and a thousand kilometres of railways and highways have been built,” Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Aisen Nikolayev said.
“The development of railways is an enormous load of work. A lot of work remains to be done in the east,” Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Marat Khusnullin said.
“We committed an oversight. For around 20 years, we failed to develop river transport, whose cost is very cheap. We need to raise the level of our rivers to four metres. Right now it’s below three,” Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Vitaly Savelyev said.
SOLUTIONS
Increase the mobility of the population
“We are stitching the country together [...] so that millions of people can see their families and fly somewhere for vacation or treatment. Our strategic goals are to increase the mobility of the population. We are concentrating on Aeroflot’s main idea of creating the Aeroflot Group, which includes Aeroflot itself, the low-cost company Pobeda, and the regular airline Rossiya. […] There should be a greater availability of services for the population. This summer, we have already redirected a part of the vehicle fleet that wasn’t being used towards development within Russia,” Aeroflot CEO Mikhail Poluboyarinov said.
“We have created an engineering centre for the development of high-speed rolling stock. […] There will be a new railway culture. We need to change and do everything more quickly. But one principle will definitely remain in place – safety and reliability. Eco-friendliness is also a key element,” Russian Railways CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board Oleg Belozyorov said.
“We are actively working on airports. [...] We are revising our approaches to communication through air travel, [...] we are reconstructing a number of airports. […] Russian Railways is also doing a great job. We need to increase the capacity to the Pacific Ocean by tens of millions of tonnes. […] Now we are trying to create an information platform for all information systems that in transport management. This is an enormous amount of work. If we build it correctly [...], the quality of the country’s entire transport system could be done in a completely different way,” Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Marat Khusnullin said.
“We need to organize the movement of absolutely all types of transport at a high level. Harmonize the metro, city trams, and electric trains. The most important thing is to develop public transport. We need digitalization, convenient roads, and dedicated lanes,” St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said.
For more, see the Roscongress Foundation’s Information and Analytical System roscongress.org.
