Business news

MINSK, 4 May (BelTA) – Speaker of the Council of the Republic Mikhail Myasnikovich voiced plans to increase rail freight traffic from China to Europe through Belarus almost twofold by 2020 as he met with Chinese journalists on 4 May, BelTA has learned.

“China-Europe rail freight traffic through Belarus and the EAEU countries has been going up. Today it poses a real challenge to maritime transport. In 2017, over 2,700 container trains traveled from China to Europe via Belarus. We plan to increase this number to 5,000 a year by 2020,” Mikhail Myasnikovich remarked.

Today one of the key tasks is to ensure that the trains operate at the maximum capacity in both directions. “Belarus is ready to give a hand. We have competitive goods, mechanical engineering and agricultural products that can be in demand in China. We are ready to supply high-quality products, not only foods,” the speaker added.

In the past seven year, $2.5 billion was invested in Belarus’ rail infrastructure to introduce new rail transportation technologies and develop the Silk Road routes. Eight trains with 80 to 100 cars cross the Belarusian territory every day on the Europe-China rail freight route.