Page 31 - BELRptDec18

9.1.12 Transport sector news
Between January and September this year some 49.5mn tonnes of merchandise crossed Belarus in transit , 18% up from the same period of last year, the State Customs Committee of Belarus reported on November 12. The volume of transit of Russian merchandise rises every year. In January-September 2018 Belarus saw over 43mn tonnes of Russian merchandise cross the country in transit, 20% up from the same period of last year. The flow of goods in the opposite direction from the EU to Russia is almost as big. The government in Minsk has been working hard to make the process of transit good easier and faster.
Minsk National Airport welcomed its four-millionth passenger this year in November, BelTA reported on November 12. “Today Minsk National Airport welcomed its 2018 four- millionth passenger. He arrived on Belavia's flight No.B2861/HY7709 Minsk-Prague,” the airport said. In 2017 the airport celebrated its four-millionth passenger on 19 December, the press service informed. The three- millionth passenger was welcomed at Minsk National Airport on 30 August 2018. Minsk National Airport is Belarus' first international airport that has been certified for compliance with the international standard ISO 9001. The airport offers flights to over 40 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, and other regions.
Landlocked Belarus could become a ‘maritime state’ with the construction of a Dnipro river port in Nizhny Zhary , in Belarus’ southernmost tip, according to Andrei Savinykh, Belarus ambassador to Turkey. Last week, Savinykh showed representatives of Turkey’s Derin Shipping & Trading Co., around Nizhny Zhary, a Gomel region village of dirt tracks and shuttered wooden cottages on the eastern edge of the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Located one kilometer north of the confluence of the Pripyat and Dnipro Rivers, the international borders with Ukraine, Nizhny Zhary now is used as the last anchorage for river barges on Belarus territory. Currently 10 km from the nearest paved road, Nizhny Zhary would be transformed in the 2020s with a multi-million dollar river terminal where seaworthy river boats could be loaded with Russian oil and Belarussian potassium chloride. After Canada and Russia, Belarus is the world’s third largest producer of potassium, the primary ingredient for potash fertilizers. With an eye on developing a Nizhny Zary-Black Sea link, Nibulon, Ukraine’s largest river transport company, signed a partnership memorandum with Gomel last year.
31 BELARUS Country Report December 2018 www.intellinews.com