Transport corridors in Eurasia to be digitalized

An agreement on cooperation to increase the competitiveness of Eurasian railway transport corridors was signed by United Transport and Logistics Company - Eurasian Railway Alliance (UTLC ERA) and Digital Development Center RUE of the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of Belarus on the margins of the Transport Week-2022 held in Moscow on November 14-19.

According to the agreement, the parties intend to cooperate in the field of digital transformation of transport and logistics processes in the Eurasian transport railway corridors. It concerns participation in pilot projects on implementation of elements of digital transport corridors (DTC) of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in the "East-West-East" direction in the segment of container rail transportation. 

The parties also agreed to implement a joint information exchange within the framework of experiments on the transfer of container transportation data and electronic shipping documents, in particular, in international freight rail transportation along the "East-West-East" routes, including cooperation with developers from Europe and China and operators of information and logistics platforms.

"The issue of digitalization of the transportation process is not only under discussion, but also has been under implementation for several years. At the same time, the level of transit traffic digitalization still lags behind exports or imports. For example, today there is electronic interaction with the tax authorities and the Federal Customs Service which allows to automate processes: VAT crediting and execution of shipping documents for export and import", said Pavel Ivankin, Chairman of the Expert Council of the Railway Transport Problems Research Institute in his interview to "1520 International".

Pavel Ivankin emphasized that the arrangements fixed in the agreement between UTLC ERA and the Digital Development Center of the Ministry of Communications of the Republic of Belarus are an important part of a large-scale project for digitization of transport on the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union, which will make it possible to abandon "paper" technologies in logistics.

The expert believes that the agreement and the implementation of these arrangements will increase transparency for both customs and tax services in terms of control over the passage of transit trains, containers and cars through the territory of the three union states that are members of the EAEU.

Olga Shelkova