Press Center

01.12.2016

Business Breakfast by the Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Took Place on December 1 at Transport of Russia.

The second day of the Tenth Anniversary International Forum and Exhibition Transport of Russia started with business breakfast by the Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Maksim Sokolov.

The meeting was held with the participation of the leadership of territorial entities of the Russian Federation, investment and pension funds, lending institutions, rating agencies, transportation, engineering and construction companies and public authorities. In his introductory remarks, Maksim Sokolov identified the agenda of the meeting and invited the guests to discuss the future of transportation system and the target programme Transportation System Development for the next decade. The Minister mentioned large-scale projects that had been implemented over the past five years and substantially influenced the whole transport sector. They are the facilities built during preparation for the APEC Summit in Vladivostok, the Universiade in Kazan and the facilities that contributed to the preparation of infrastructure for the Olympics in Sochi. “The projects implemented within the framework of the strategy did transform our transportation system, and we can be proud of them. These are global scale projects!”, Maksim Sokolov stressed.

Dmitriy Kobylkin, Governor of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, spoke about the construction of Northern Latitudinal Railway sections in Yamal. “One of advantages of the project is that it is realized with the use of Russian manufactured materials only”, the governor said. Maksim Sokolov noted that the launch of the project was a “matter of honour” for him personally, and even despite budget cuts, it was important to launch it within this decade.

Vasiliy Golubev, Governor of Rostov region, reported on the region’s most significant transportation projects, in particular, a loop road near Aksay. Traffic load on the road in Aksay has reached 110,000 vehicles a day. The by-pass will reduce traffic density, release the streets of the city from transit traffic and increase the level of road safety”, the governor informed.

Sergey Kehlbach, Chairman of the Board of Avtodor, confirmed the words of Vassiliy Golubev and added that the project was very important and highly profitable. “Aksay loop road project will be implemented within PPP framework”, he said.

Ilya Sedov, Senior Vice President of Russian Direct Investment Fund, told about the projects realized in Russian regions with the support of the Fund. “We would like to enhance cooperation with the State within the framework of PPP projects structuring, because the methods that used to work five years ago are no longer effective, and we need to find new solutions”, he stressed.

Oleg Pankratov, Head of the Department for Infrastructure Financing of VTB Capital, noted that VTB Group traditionally was a leader in PPP projects investing, and it was resolute to increase the number. According to him, a landmark project for VTB Group was Pulkovo airport stakes purchase deal with Qatar Direct Investment Fund. “It was the first time in the Russian Federation, when a public-private partnership project was released on the secondary market”.

Albert Yeganyan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of InfraOne, expressed his opinion about the prospects of interaction with public authorities in terms of PPP. According to him, today, dozens of projects come to the market, but the market needs hundreds. “We have enough money and liquidity surplus, and Russian citizens desperately need a developed infrastructure, but the market gets few projects”, he said. Albert Yeganyan believes that now major companies are not limited in launching transportation projects on extrabudgetary basis.

Kirill Polyakov, Head of the St. Petersburg Transport Directorate, acquainted the audience with the projects being implemented in Leningrad region. In particular, today, they work on involving former military railways in economic turnover as a part of Saint-Petersburg transportation hub. Thus, thanks to a new rail road, the time spent on the way from the centre of St. Petersburg to the satellite town Sertolovo decreased from 50 to 30 minutes.

To summarize, Maksim Sokolov thanked the heads of regions for collaborative work on large-scale projects of transport sector. “I thank you for devoting personal attention to the development of transport infrastructure. And we all understand that this is the key to successful development of the whole country”.