EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
MINSK, 10 January (BelTA) – The customs clearance practices used at the Belarusian border checkpoint Bruzgi may be spread to other border checkpoints of Belarus, BelTA learned from Young Chul Kim, World Bank Country Manager for Belarus, on 8 January before the agreement on a $250 million World Bank loan for modernizing a transit corridor in Belarus was signed.
In accordance with the project cargo customs clearance procedures will be improved in the border checkpoint Bruzgi. The changes will increase the throughput capacity from 700 trucks at present to 1,700 trucks. "If we see that the customs clearance reforms in Bruzgi are effective, it may be advisable to consider their replication in other border checkpoints. It can be done as an independent project," remarked Young Chul Kim.
Bruzgi is the largest border checkpoint at the Belarusian-Polish border. It is important for the World Bank group to get the customs procedures improved on both sides, added the World Bank representative. There are plans to invite Poland to join the implementation of the ideas that allow optimizing transport traffic between the two countries.
Young Chul Kim stressed that the implementation of the project will allow increasing Belarus' overall transit potential. Not only Belarus but transiting countries are interested in it.
In turn, Belarusian Deputy Transport and Communications Minister Alexei Avramenko said that the implementation of the project will begin with the reconstruction of the motorway M6 Minsk-Grodno. At the same time the traffic coordination system will be improved. The system allows traffic participants to promptly inform the relevant authorities about problems on the road. Apart from that, the project envisages measures to develop the motorway service.
On 19 December 2014 the World Bank Board of Directors approved a $250 million loan for Belarus for the sake of implementing the project that envisages the modernization of the transit corridor. The loan granted to Belarus for the sake of implementing the project is the largest loan granted by the World Bank so far to the country. As far as the project itself is concerned, it is the second automobile industry project financed by the World Bank in Belarus. Before that the World Bank had allocated about $150 million for the reconstruction of the Pukhovichi-Bobruisk section of the motorway M5 Minsk-Gomel. The 53km-long section was upgraded to premium quality and was commissioned in late 2013. In 2015 the project is supposed to be completed by introducing a system for the dynamic weighing of heavy and large-size vehicles in this section of the motorway.