Moldova is in favor of extending the liberalization of road freight transport with the EU even after June 2024, when the agreement between the parties expires.
State Secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development, Mircea Pascaluta announced this while speaking at a multilateral meeting of officials from Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, the USA and the EU, which took place in Galati and discussed the improvement of alternative routes for grain transportation from Ukraine. He spoke about Moldova's vision for transportation links with the EU. "We share the same vision with our colleagues from Ukraine. We cannot talk about this process separately, especially when it comes to transit infrastructure, which is specific to our country. A minor interruption or stoppage on a section of the railroad network in Moldova can block the entire logistics chain, both in Ukraine and Romania," Mircea Pascaluta said. At the same time, the State Secretary of the Infrastructure and Regional Development Ministry stressed that Moldova has demonstrated by concrete measures its involvement in everything that concerns the transit and transportation of goods from Ukraine to the European market. In this regard, the rehabilitation of the Basarabeasca-Berezino section, attraction of financing for the rehabilitation of the Bender-Basarabeasca-Giurgiulesti corridor and the rehabilitation of the North-Center corridor through the "Solidarity Lanes" program were mentioned. "We should ensure the liberalization of the road freight transport market even after June 2024, when the Moldova-EU agreement expires, and we should ensure the extension of the liberalization of the same segment also with our Ukrainian colleagues through joint committees for international road transport," Mircea Pacaluta specified. For his part, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization Viorel Garaz said that investments should be boosted to accelerate the transit of goods to the European Union. "The state is making significant efforts to rehabilitate the railway infrastructure and attract investments in the expansion of the port infrastructure. These measures will lead to an increase in transportation capacities for Ukrainian grain, which will have a positive impact on the value of Moldovan grain exports. At the same time, these initiatives will contribute to maintaining the road infrastructure and relieving the national roads from thousands of trucks," Viorel Garaz emphasized. // 14.08.2023 - InfoMarket.
