The XII Annual International Conference TRILOGY

The 12^th TRILOGY Conference, that took place on 14 June in St. Petersburg, was devoted to topical issues of transport and logistics development as the basis for international cooperation in the Greater Eurasia space regarding new realities. The Russian Railways has traditionally become a general partner of the event.

As part of the business program, industry experts discussed a new paradigm for the international container transportation development, the tasks of logistics flows redistributing and modern efficient logistics chains formation as the basis for the Russian transport and logistics complex as a kind of response to the macroeconomics changes.

The conference participants stressed that sanctions and new global challenges have brought profound changes to aspects of the transport corridors operation. However, as Mr. Li Zhimin, Vice president and Secretary General of CIFA noted in his report, “any change may bring positive and negative effects, and these two aspects often coexist”.

Member of the Board (Minister) for Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission Sergey Glazyev said that the trade approaches reformatting poses new challenges for the transport and logistics chain. According to him, joint investments as a basis for improving the welfare of cooperating states are becoming the main direction of international cooperation. “The 5% per year benchmarks for economic growth were adopted at the summit of the Eurasian Economic Council, as there are clear opportunities to enhance production volumes up to 8% growth in gross product through increased investment and changes in monetary policy,” added the Minister.

Special attention was paid to accelerated logistics of agro-industrial products and food ensuring along the routes of the EAEU countries and partner countries transport corridors. Professionals from the sphere of transport and logistics assessed the development potential of the North-South ITC in the new economic conditions as well. However, as Gennady Bessonov, Secretary General of the International Coordinating Council for Trans-Eurasian Transportation, emphasized, the North-South transport corridor must be modernized; otherwise, it will not be able to bring a sufficient amount of cargo base due to the lack of the operator market and partners significant number. In this regard, it is important to develop bilateral and trilateral agreements and create a favorable transition to mutual settlements in the national currency.

Viktor Golomolzin, Head of the October Railway – RZD JSCo Territorial Branch, presented a number of projects implemented by the October Railway together with its partners over the past two years to build new logistics supplies. Thanks to this, a week and a half after the first sanctions imposition, they were able to reorient new flows and go in new directions. The company has also been engaged in digital transformation for a long time that provides an opportunity to produce 92% of paperwork in electronic form.

Industry experts also touched on the importance of environmental issues, the solution of which has temporarily faded due to the sharp increase of confrontational relations with the West. Ivan Starikov, the Scientific Director of the Center for Green Economy and Climate at VEB.RF, Member of the RAS Interdepartmental Coordinating Transnational Development of the Eurasian Continent Council, announced the potential to reduce the carbon footprint by replacing the sea passage with the railway one.

Two memorandums were signed within the framework of the conference as well: on cooperation between the Russian Railways and the Eurosib SPb-Transport Systems in the development of export-import transportation using the North-South International Transport Corridor and on mutual understanding between the International Coordinating Council for Trans-Eurasian Transportation and the Afanasy Nikitin Association.

A private tour to the Museum of Russian Railways was organized for the conference participants at the end of the event.

The conference gathered the representatives of the Russian Federation state authorities, industry associations, educational and design institutes, major transport and logistics organizations, as well as representatives of foreign companies. Everyone noted the relevance of the issues discussed at the conference. Recommendations of the conference participants will be provided to the Organizing Committee of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and all interested parties.