Belarus is interested in increasing its exports via Ukrainian ports, in particular, via the Odesa maritime merchandise port, the press service of the Odesa port has reported.
The press service said that Consul General of Belarus to Odesa
Valentin Filipchik gave the information at a meeting with heads of the
port’s administration and trade union on August 21, 2012.
Filipchik said that the Belarusian economy is oriented to exports
requires access to sea, as a large share of Belarusian goods and
industrial raw materials is imported via Baltic and Black Sea ports.
The press service said that Odesa port, as well as other Ukrainian
ports, is interesting to Ukrainian exporters due to two reasons: Baltic
ports provide services at rather high tariffs of the European Union,
taking into account criteria of time and distances, while transportation
of Belarusian transit to Southeast Asia is preferable via the Black Sea
ports.
At the meeting the sides came to the conclusion that the stirring up
of the mutually beneficial cooperation could promote the designing of a
comprehensive through tariff, which would include railway and port
compounds.
The meeting participants agreed to prepare proposals for making a
decision at the level of transport ministries of the two countries.
Odesa port is located on 109.5 hectares. The port is capable of
processing over 14 million tonnes of dry cargo and 24 million tonnes of
liquid cargo per year. The port accepts vessels with lengths of up to
270 meters and maximum draughts of 13 meters. The total length of the
port’s berths exceeds eight kilometers.
