During the 4th Bydgoszcz Amber Trail Forum, a memorandum of understanding was signed on cooperation for the creation of a transport corridor between the Baltic Sea and the port of Iraqi Basra, which would be an alternative route to the Suez Canal and the land route through Belarus and Russia. On the Polish side, the agreement was signed by the New Amber Route, the Polish-Iraqi Business Council, the Nadwiślański Association of Employers Lewiatan and the Polish-Arab Social and Economic Club. On the Iraqi side, it was mainly entrepreneurs who came to Bydgoszcz for the Forum.
The participation of private business in this type of venture is crucial – it is true that the transport routes are determined by the decision-makers, but it is the freight forwarders who look for stable and cheapest solutions.
The Baltic-Persian Gulf Transport Corridor is an initiative to develop north-south trade between Europe and Asia by improving transport accessibility, promoting intermodal transport and building links between regions.
This may contribute to the economic development of regions located in the corridor’s route area – says the memorandum – realising the potential from building cooperation between terminals located in Polish sea ports in Gdansk and Gdynia and in Basra in Iraq, together with the Gdynia-Karlskrona Motorway of the Sea initiative, we will strive to improve mutual accessibility. This should be realised primarily through bottom-up socio-economic cooperation.
– Iraq is investing heavily with Turkey in rail infrastructure and the development of the GrandFaw port, reaching the very borders of the European Union. We are happy that we can already participate in the work of building this corridor,’ mentions Łukasz Religa, president of the New Amber Trail.
As part of the 4th Bydgoszcz Amber Route Forum, the potential of this corridor, named for the purposes of the conference as the ‘Mesopotamian window to Asia’, was discussed. As the conference was hosted by the Bydgoszcz Trade Fair and Exhibition Centre, a lot of attention was paid to the promotion of the logistics potential of northern Poland (including the planned Bydgoszcz-Emiianowo terminal). The New Amber Route expressed the hope that it would be built by 2029.
–Why in Bydgoszcz? It is, I hope, an important point on the map of Poland for all participants in today’s meeting, but also an important point at the crossroads of many trade routes. ‘Asia-Europe economic cooperation is undoubtedly the future of many countries,’ said deputy Włodzisław Giziński, chairman of the Bydgoszcz Land Parliamentary Group. The parliamentarian mentioned, among other things, the developing Cargo at Bydgoszcz airport.
At the conference, the concept of a terminal in Inowrocław at the junction of the TEN-T Baltic-Adriatic corridor with the North Sea-Baltic corridor was also presented. This terminal would be an excellent complement to Emilianowo.
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