Business news

MINSK, 24 October (BelTA) – Belarus and Turkey continue working on the project to organize freight transportation along the Dnieper River, BelTA learned from Ambassador of Turkey to Belarus Kezban Nilvana Darama on 24 October.

A deep-water port is supposed to be built near the village of Nizhniye Zhary, Bragin District, Gomel Oblast as part of the project. Belarus and Turkey are working on the prime cost, the profit margin of the project, and the time requirement, said the ambassador. All aspects of the project are being looked into and evaluated.

Financial sources for implementing the project are being sought. The diplomat stressed that the project’s implementation will offer an alternative to transport companies of the two countries. They will be able to transport freight at lower prices.

The possibility of freight transportation along the Dnieper River has been repeatedly discussed at various levels by Belarus and Turkey and by Belarus and Ukraine. In autumn 2017 the governors of Gomel Oblast and Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast and top executives of the Nikolayev-based company OOO SP Nibulon signed a trilateral memorandum of cooperation and partnership with a view to restoring shipping along the Dnieper River. Loading river-sea vessels with Belarusian cargoes for the sake of delivering them to Europe, Asia, and Africa via the Black Sea is the idea. Such vessels will not require freight transshipment in sea ports, thus greatly reducing the cost of delivery.

A deep-water port is supposed to be built near the village of Nizhniye Zhary, Bragin District, Gomel Oblast as part of the project. The site is located virtually at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. Part of the Dnieper River between the port and the Kiev water reservoir will have to be deepened as part of the project. This port can become a major transit hub in the future, connecting the eastern and western parts of the new Silk Road from China to Europe. It will also allow delivering Belarusian products along the Dnieper River via the Black Sea to other countries.

It was reported in August 2018 that three Turkish companies showed interest in the project.