In autumn 2008, the RF Government will adopt a resolution confirming the boundaries of the Big Port of St. Petersburg earlier approved by the Ministry of Transport at a joint meeting between RosMorRechFlot and the Maritime Council attended by the RF Minister of Transport Igor Levitin. The port is to include Bronka cargo district, Lomonosov and a part of Kotlin island. The port activities are not to include Gorskaya station. More over, port activities of three stevedoring companies are to be ceased at Vasilyevsky island

At its 41st meeting, the Paris MoU Committee approved the 2007 inspection results and adopted new performance lists for flag States and Recognized Organizations. These lists took effect from 1 July 2008. According to the inspection results the Russian Federation moved up from the “Grey List” to the “White List” of Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control

The first all-Russia Forum Current State and Perspectives of Russian Bunkering Market Development was held the past week in Saint Petersburg. Among the key issues the Forum considered customs legislation, economic and legal risks related to bunkering industry, production infrastructure of bunkering companies. Special attention was paid to the ban on the use of single-hulled vessels in Russian ports

As early as in 2007, the construction of a deep sea port in Archangelsk was called one of the most important projects on Russia’s port infrastructure development. However, it is still not clear who is to become the project’s investor and how the project is to be implemented. The Dutch enterprises show a great interest in the project, the Dutch General Consul in St. Petersburg Edward Hoeks said. Meanwhile, experts are not sure about absolute attractiveness of Archangelsk for shipping lines though they admit that construction of Belkomur railway is to raise the port’s transport availability

Safety control is one of the most significant factors for efficient development of transport complex. PortNews IAA publishes the report "The role of control and supervision in the sphere of maritime and river transport" made by Vladimir Popov, deputy head of the Federal Service for Transport Supervision, at international conference "Safety of ports and multimodal systems" held in St. Petersburg

Negotiations between the Transport Ministries of the Russian Federation and Finland have been held this week in Helsinki. The main issue still related to liquidation of queues at vehicle check points at Russia-Finland border and construction of parking grounds. Meanwhile, cargo flow entering Russia via Finnish ports continues to grow thus increasing the volume of road transportation. This year it is to grow by 20%, which is to make the problem even more urgent

Dmitry Atlashkin, head of the North-West board of GosMorRechNadzor, about striking of the Shtandart tall ship off the register of ships

Among global problems discussed at the 12th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which was held on June 6-8, the transportation issue was brought up as the development of international trade requires active development of transport infrastructure. However in the present time Russian transport companies are not as competitive as their foreign rivals at the global market. Even the Ministry of Transport acknowledges this. Meanwhile, St. Petersburg enters international level in terms of oil sales. St. Petersburg is to launch trading at its raw materials and commodity exchange by the end of 2008

On Friday the first phase of a multifunctional transshipment complex Yug-2 was launched in Ust-Luga. The terminal’s major task is to handle new foreign cars which earlier entered Russia mainly via the ports of Finland. However, road infrastructure is to be urgently upgraded, otherwise further development of terminals is unreasonable

Latvian Railway services over 70% of Russia transit via Latvian ports. In 2008, Latvijas Dzelzcels expects to raise its throughput to 55 million tonnes with over a half falling on Russian cargo. Besides, the management of Latvian Railway plans cargo diversification with a spesial focus on containerized cargo coming particularly from China