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Tomorrow is the 15th Anniversary of the ferry crossing between Ukraine and Georgia
17:04 / 15.12.2011

ODESA, DECEMBER 15th, 2011, CONTEXT-PRICHERNOMORIE — Tomorrow is the 15th Anniversary of the ferry crossing between Ukraine and Georgia, Context-Prichernomorie correspondent reports.

Spokesman for the Association of Owners of Ukraine Alexander Fedorov informed today, 15 December.

According to his information, over this period more than 11.3 million tons of cargo and 102 thousand passengers have been carried on this route.

“All in all, we are happy with the results of our work in the sea area of the “Great Silk Road”, summed up the work of the ferry line between the shores of Georgia and Ukraine during the Head of the Board of Directors of the Black Sea Joint Exploitation of the Railway-Ferry Oleksandr Kurland.

“Growing traffic volumes indicate that we are on the right track. But, in my opinion, these amounts could be higher. The constraints are known, they have been repeatedly dwelled on at international conferences and meetings. First of all, they are barriers at border crossings, which now not only interfere with transport operators of the Black Sea region, but with the international cooperation as well. Various memoranda defined the course conditions at harmonizing border crossing in the Black Sea countries and bringing them to civilized standards long ago. Implementation of these plans will undoubtedly have an impact on the growth of trade between the Black Sea countries and the turnover of ferry lines”, said Mr Kurland.

“On the other hand, nonmarket behaviour of the participating agencies, often clumsy in making tariff decisions or taking such decisions, guided only by their own interests sometimes negatively affects the turnover. Ukrzaliznytsya’s restriction to use their carriages for export shipments or, for example, excessive port charges at the port of Poti, all this does not contribute to the growth in traffic, and creates new problems such as cargo owners, transport operators and colleagues. However, I have no doubt that these questions and many others, will eventually be solved in the next year the volume of traffic returns to pre-crisis level of 1.2 million tons. Although this figure is only an intermediate stage. Potential ferry service to date is at the juncture of two million tons. So we have to strive and work to do”, added Mr Kurland.