ODESA, AUGUST 22nd, 2012, CONTEXT-PRICHERNOMORIE ― Consul General of Belarus to Odesa Valentin Filipchik visited GE Odesa Commercial Sea Port, Context-Prichernomorie correspondent reports.

The press service of the port informed today, 22 August.

According to the press service, 21 August, a meeting of Consul General of the Republic of Belarus in Odesa with the administration and the trade-union committee took place at GE Odesa Commercial Sea Port. The port of Odesa was represented by Yuri Vaskov, honorary president of the Odesa port Mykola Pavlyuk, chairman of the Trade Union of Maritime Transport OMTP Volodymyr Zaykov.

Mr Filipchik noted that the export-oriented economy of Belarus needs access to the sea. A massive share of Belarussian goods and raw materials are transported through the Baltic ports and the ports of the Black Sea. Odesa, as well as other ports of Ukraine, is interesting to Belarusian exporters for two reasons: first, the Baltic ports provide services at quite high rates, with it being part of the EU, and secondly, on the basis of the criteria of distance and time, transport Belarusian transit to South-East Asia it is more profitable to be conducted via the ports of the Black Sea.

Yuri Vaskov, in turn, informed the envoy about the goods that shipped from Belarus via Odesa port.

During the discussion, the parties came to the conclusion that the activation of mutual cooperation could contribute to the development of integrated through tariff, which would include rail and port components.

The parties agreed to a detailed analysis of the situation and make appropriate proposals for a decision on the level of the transport ministries of the two countries.