The Forum was held from 29 November to 1 December, 2022 at Expoforum Exhibition Center with the support of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Directorate of International Transport Corridors (DITC), the Eurasian Economic Commission, United Transport and Logistics Company - Eurasian Rail Alliance, the International Coordinating Council for Trans-Eurasian Transportation and the Russian Academy of Transport.
TRANSTEC 2022 was attended by more than 1,500 people, including 400 delegates and 70 VIP participants. Leading market players sent representative delegations, including JSC Russian Railways, Delo Group of companies, PJSC Far-Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO), ANO DITC, the Government of St. Petersburg, VEB.RF, Delko, JSC Federal Cargo Company, PJSC PhosAgro, PJSC TransContainer, PJSC Aeroflot. Apart from the Russian participants, delegates from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and Uzbekistan arrived at the Forum.
The business program included 15 events, at which 120 speakers – representatives of government, business, science and the expert community - took the floor. The Forum program was covered by 56 media organisations: 23 business and 25 industry periodicals, as well as 6 TV channels. The volunteer support was provided by students of the Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University.
The Forum opened with a video message by Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia Valentin Ivanov. In the first part of the plenary session, which was devoted to logistics mobility technologies and services, experts discussed issues of transport policy of sustainable development in modern conditions, global shifts in the field of transportation and new solutions in response to current challenges and constraints. Sergey Pavlov, First Deputy Managing Director of Russian Railways, said that rail transportation on the eastern branch of the North–South ITC will be carried out at a reduced rate from 2023. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Far Eastern Shipping Company (the parent company of FESCO) Andrey Severilov spoke about plans to create a hub in the Republic of Tatarstan. The Governor of Isfahan Province (Iran) Reza Mortazavi took part in the discussion as a foreign guest.
The participants of the second part of the plenary session reviewed innovative logistics technologies in the system of international transport corridors. Among the main topics are ensuring the mobility of supply chains in industry markets in the new economic conditions, services for the organization of uninterrupted supply of goods and services for consumers. The head of the Oktyabrskaya Railway, Viktor Golomolzin, presented the logistics projects implemented at the Russian Railways as a key link of international transport corridors in the Eurasian space.
Following the results of the plenary session, moderators – Chairman of the Subcommittee on Transport and Logistics of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Committee for International Cooperation Oleg Dunaev and Managing Partner of INFOLine-Analytics Mikhail Burmistrov, as well as Deputy Director General for Commercial Operations of JSC RZD Logistics Sergey Levin and Head of the Russian Railways Viktor Golomolzin took part in a press scrum.
At the session "Mobility of Logistics in Industry", which was held with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, issues of mobility management of international supply chains, the role of basic infrastructure to improve the efficiency of supply chains, as well as the development of mobility technologies in the logistics of industrial companies were raised. Participants exchanged experiences and best practices on the use of seamless technology in multimodal supply chains for the benefit of industrial enterprises. The moderator was Konstantin Kim, Director of the Center for Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia.
During the session “Mobility of Spatial Connectivity in the North West Region”, tools to increase the efficiency of interaction between different modes of transport in the region were discussed, as well as ways to form an inter-sectoral partnership network of the St Petersburg distribution centre in connection with international hubs in the APAC, Middle East and Latin American countries. The participants took the initiative to create a Center of the North-Western Transport and Logistics Cluster for the transition to innovative mobility of international trade services and the integration of supply chains into global, national and regional value chains.
The participants of the session "Logistics technologies in the development of new routes to the East–West ITC and their profitability" proposed options for building a network of economic cooperation between business, government agencies and scientific and educational complexes along the corridor route from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. Among them are the development of a client-centric platform business model in the field of international logistics, the formation of a single digital platform for information support of participants in logistics chains, the creation of a permanent expert council for development in the field of logistics at public organizations and associations.
At the session "Development of the transport complex to achieve technological sustainability", co-organised by the Russian Academy of Transport, proposals were made to the Ministry of Transport of Russia to ensure that work is carried out on the scientific justification of the technological sustainability of the transport and logistics services market, developing a road map and investigating problematic issues under sanctions pressure and the mobilisation economy. According to the participants of the discussion, it is important to determine the economically justified geography of the dry ports location in conjunction with the projected volumes of traffic along international transport corridors.
The main event of the second day of the Forum was the session ""North – South ITC: moving forward". The experts discussed the prospects for the development of the corridor, as well as exchanged experience in the use of seamless technologies in the organization of multimodal deliveries. Alexander Isaev, Director General of the Directorate of International Transport Corridors, spoke about the work being done to expand bottlenecks not only from the infrastructure perspective, but also in the context of improving the regulatory framework. For 10 months of 2022, the total volume of freight rail traffic in international traffic amounted to 445 million tons, the turnover of containers – 3.3 million TEU. At the end of the year, no reduction is expected, despite the reorientation of the entire Russian Railways transport system to the east and south. In particular, the North-South corridor has been under active consideration at the Oktyabrskaya Railway for about 3 months. During this period, exports from railway stations increased almost 5 times, and taking into account the western branch, 140 thousand tons were transported to Novorossiysk – this is 20 times more than in 2021. According to the Managing Director of Siddhartha Logistics FTWZ Pvt. Ltd. (India) Padhya Nischal, the efforts made will certainly give results and the North–South ITC will help improve trade between Russia and India. The Trade Representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Russian Federation Ruslan Allahverdi oglu Aliyev listed the main advantages of the corridor, among them – a reduction in the distance of transportation by two or more times, as well as a reduction in the cost of shipping containers compared to the sea route.
The session "Euro-Asian Transportation: New Logistics and Technological Solutions" was organized jointly with the International Coordinating Council on Trans-Eurasian Transportation (CCTT). The participants discussed the impact of external factors on the sustainability of trans-Eurasian services, presented new routes due to the reorientation of foreign economic relations. The discussion was moderated by the CCTT Secretary General Gennady Bessonov.
The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Committee for International Cooperation and the Higher School of Engineering Academy of the Russian University of Transport (MIIT) co-organized the session "Mobility in Large Urban Agglomerations. International cooperation”. The discussion was devoted to modern trends and patterns of mobility in agglomerations.
The participants of the session "Customs and logistics activities: infrastructure, customs, technologies on the example of a bridge crossing over the Amur River near the cities of Blagoveshchensk and Heihe" considered the issues of infrastructure development to ensure mobility in the logistics of cross-border transportation.
The session "Seamless Logistics Technologies in the interaction of the EAEU and the SCO" was devoted to the integration of digital logistics management platforms of participants in international transport corridors. Experts exchanged views on the topic of logistics robotic automation, the use of drones and other unmanned vehicles.
At the session "Digital Business Transformation: Technologies and services for creating a competitive supply chain", the topic of companies' transition from value chains to ecosystems was raised and the prospects for the development of a platform business model in achieving business success and growth were assessed.
The topic of digitalization was continued at the session "Digital technologies in the security system of transport and logistics services". The participants discussed the impact of sanctions, as well as the main aspects of electronic business turnover.
Within the framework of the Forum, for the first time, an education day was held, which was attended by leading universities of St. Petersburg that train personnel for the transport and logistics industry.
The TRANSTEC 2022 exposition occupied about 1000 sq. m. m and for greater coverage of visitors was placed on a single site with the exhibition "Russian Industrialist". ExpoForum International CEO Sergey Voronkov conducted an official tour of the exhibition for a VIP delegation consisting of the President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Vasily Osmakov, Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg for Transport Kirill Polyakov and State Duma Deputy Denis Kravchenko. Representatives of large industrial enterprises of Russia also took part in the tour. Of particular interest was the stand of the Iranian company Behineh Tarabar Azhour. The official delegation was welcomed by the Chairman of the Board of Behineh Tarabar Azhour LLC Mustafa Akdam and the Financial Director of AgroTrans LLC Mohammad Majdi.
The participants of TRANSTEC 2022 held a series of negotiations on the Business Contacts Exchange. In particular, negotiations were held with GTLogistics, Brimstone Kimya San Tic AS, IMPEX ERA MMC (Azerbaijan), Siddhartha Logistics FTWZ Pvt. Ltd. (India), Gazpromneft-Supply, Alfa-Pribor, ANO DITC, Vladoflot, PUL Trans, St. Peter's Terminal, Akonit.
Within the framework of the Forum, for the first time, an education day was held, which was attended by leading universities of St. Petersburg that train personnel for the transport and logistics industry. The conference "Engineering Entrepreneurship: New solutions in Transport and Logistics" was held at the Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University, within the framework of which students of the School of Engineering Entrepreneurship of the Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University presented their startups. And the St. Petersburg State University of Economics hosted the conference "School of intergenerational continuity among logisticians" with master classes from the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, JSC Russian Railways and Gazprom Neft and an excursion to the transport and warehouse complex of Russian Railways.
An exciting cultural and excursion program along with an evening dinner were organized for the participants of TRANSTEC 2022.