A major Hong Kong company is ready to invest in building a multimodal international transportation and logistics center at premises of the Orsha aircraft repairs plant, Pavel Bozhanov, Head of the Office for Strategic Development, Coordination and Investments of Transport Systems of the Belarusian Transport and Communication Ministry, told a press conference on 14 July.

According to Pavel Bozhanov, the investor has already confirmed its financial readiness to participate in the project by paperwork. “In the near future we plan to put together an investment contract. The draft contract is already being prepared,” he said. The official added that the action plan to implement the project with assistance of the Hong Kong company had been approved by the government. Organizational matters are being dealt with.

The investor suggests that cargoes should be transported from China initially. “The idea is that the aircraft that travel in China’s direction are banned from Europe. Some of them are supposed to shift from the Moscow airport Domodedovo to Orsha,” said the Transport and Communication Ministry official. The Orsha aircraft repairs plant has a runway used exclusively for aircraft scheduled for repairs. It is necessary to use the runway and the land that the plant does not fully use at present.

“The runway will remain state-owned. Next to it a major terminal as large as about one million square meters will be built,” said Pavel Bozhanov.

In his words, at the same time negotiations with a Latvian investor are in progress. The investor is interested in taking part in the project and inviting an Austrian company.

The official did not specify the amount of investments the project will require. “We hope that the project with the Hong Kong investor will pull the project with the Latvian investor, too. We plan to implement it together,” he said.

Asked whether Belarusian transportation and logistics centers will compete with Russian ones, Pavel Bozhanov said that Belarus will not thwart cargo owners from Russia. Russian specialists have no such worries. “The projects we are implementing do not essentially influence the cargo traffic which is tied with Russia,” he added.

There are plans to establish 50 logistics centers in Belarus in the next few years. Of them 18 will be transportation and logistics centers. Some projects are already underway including the construction of the transportation and logistics center Prilesie by an Iranian company. Organizational matters relating to the project have been dealt with already, including land allocation. It is one of the most active projects aimed at creating a transportation and logistics center in Belarus.

Another major project will be carried out by a Belgian investor near the national airport Minsk. The oblast administration has already decided to allocate land for the new facility. “The Belgian investor will visit Belarus in the near future. We will address organizational matters and I think construction machines will get busy at the site soon,” said the Head of the Office for Strategic Development, Coordination and Investments of Transport Systems of the Belarusian Transport and Communication Ministry.

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