Head of state Yevgeny Shevchuk received Acting Foreign Minister Vitaly Ignatiev and Director of the SUE “Pridnestrovian Railway” Oleg Kulbikov. The meeting was also attended by Chairman of the Government Pavel Prokudin.
The working meeting focused on a broad spectrum of issues related to the situation in the Pridnestrovian railway and outlook for the enterprise.
We remind that in early December 2015 Moldova and Ukraine’s railway representatives signed a protocol agreement on changing the scheme of movement of goods, imported in Pridnestrovie by railroad. Thus, the “Slobodka-export” and “Kuchurgan-export” stations were excluded from this scheme since January 1, 2016
The meeting discussed the risks, difficulties, economic losses and costs faced by the enterprise, and also a set of logistical problems. “As a result of the unilateral decision to change the railway communication scheme the Pridnestrovian railway is virtually devoid of serious amount of cargo transportation and suffers enormous economic losses. Our economic agents suffer losses too, because the Moldovan Railway are currently conducting the lion's share of all transportation services,” said the president.
During the meeting, the director of SUE “Pridnestrovian Railway” submitted cargo flow data. “From the analysis it is clear that the most difficult situation is on export-import operations. We lost in transportation volumes. If we compare 2014 and 2016, the volumes of cargo flow on export-import operations have declined by 70% here. Losses of 5 million rubles of the enterprise have been generated for the first quarter of this year. We are within the framework of austerity,” said Oleg Kulbikov.
Acting Foreign Minister Vitaly Ignatiev said that Kishinev and Kiev’s protocol decision of December 2015 was taken outside the negotiation process, without consulting with Pridnestrovie. “This is one of the most acute and topical issues of bilateral relations of expert (working) groups’ activity and political representatives’ interaction. We have initiated a series of meetings with technical experts to discuss all aspects of the matter as a whole. As a result, the Moldovan partners did not have serious counter-arguments against the proposals prepared by our side. We have submitted a technological scheme and an additional protocol that would describe the import regime of goods through the use of Pridnestrovian railway’s resources - said the foreign minister. - Unfortunately, the Moldovan colleagues have stated that they do not have sufficient authority to resolve the issue. A pause was taken, after which Moldova’s representatives said that the best solution to this problem is the activities of the Pridnestrovian railway as a division of the Moldovan railway. This offer is politicized, unacceptable and inconsistent with the logic of the negotiation process. “Vitaly Ignatiev noted that currently there are no signals of the Moldovan side's readiness to substantively consider the proposals of Pridnestrovie to solve this acute humanitarian and social problem.
The meeting resulted in a number of instructions.
The discussion of the situation around the functioning of the SUE “Pridnestrovian Railway” was included in the agenda of the enlarged meeting of the Security Council and the State Council of the PMR, which is scheduled for May 26, 2016.
Source: the website of the PMR President
