UIC, the worldwide organisation for railway cooperation, is ready to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BSEC (Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation).
Talks with BSEC started a year ago to agree on a number of common interests of collaboration such as improving transport via the international transport corridors and regions around the Black Sea, including intermodal transportation, establishing a common information space, increasing the effectiveness of decisions taken within both organisations, development of regional studies concerning the railway corridors, multi-modal transport links, development and continuous updating of strategic visions for the development of railway transport in the Black Sea Region and promotion of projects for CO2 and noise reduction.
BSEC is a multilateral political and economic initiative aimed at fostering interaction and harmony among the Member States, as well as to ensure peace, stability and prosperity encouraging friendly and good neighbourly relations in the Black Sea region.
Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux had the opportunity to meet the BSEC Secretary-General, Prof. Dr. Victor Ţvircun, the Deputy General Secretary Ambassador Traian Chebeleu and Mr Yevgen Koziy, the Transport Project Manager. Following an exchange of opinions, they decided on the road map of the next actions, especially for the opportunities to develop railway transport options given by the new “Marmaray” Tunnel to East Asia and the Arab Peninsula.
A mutual exchange of information and invitation to take part in the forthcoming activities was initiated.
Mr Victor Ţvircun invited UIC to be an observer organisation to BSEC and personally invited Mr Loubinoux to attend the next BSEC Conference of Transport Ministries.
BSEC covers a geography encompassing the territories of the Black Sea littoral States, the Balkans and the Caucasus with an area of nearly 20 million square kilometres. The BSEC region is located on two continents (Europe and Asia), has 12 member countries and represents a region of some 350 million people with a foreign trade capacity of over USD 300 billion annually. After the Persian Gulf region, it is the second-largest source of oil and natural gas along with its rich proven reserves of minerals and metals. It is becoming Europe’s major transport and energy transfer corridor.
