Tiraspol, 25 May. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. President Yevgeny Shevchuk met the acting foreign minister, Vitaly Ignatyev, and the director of GUKP Pridnestrovian Railway, Oleg Kulbikov. The meeting was also attended by the chairman of the government, Pavel Prokudin.
The working meeting centred on a wide range of issues related to the current situation with the Pridnestrovian railway and its prospects.
In early December 2015, Ukrainian and Moldovan railway officials signed a protocol agreement changing the railway scheme of importing cargoes to Pridnestrovie. Hence, since 1 January 2016 railway stations Slobodka Export and Kuchurgan Export have been excluded from this scheme.
As the president's press service reports, the meeting participants discussed the risks, difficulties, economic losses and costs the enterprise is experiencing, as well as a spectrum of logistic issues.
«As a result of the unilateral decision changing the railway communication scheme, the Pridnestrovian railway has lost a serious amount of traffic freight and is incurring huge economic losses. So do our economic agents because now the lion's share of freight traffic accounts for the Moldovan railway," said the president.
The director of GUKP Pridnestrovian Railway briefed the president on traffic freight data.
«The analysis shows that the main problem is export/import operations. The volume of our traffic freight has decreased. If compared with 2014, the volume of export/import freight traffic has decreased by 70% in 2016. Following the first quarter of 2016 the enterprises incurred losses at an amount of 5 million roubles We have assumed austerity measures," said Oleg Kulbikov.
The acting foreign minister, Vitaly Ignatyev, emphasised that the Kiev-Kishinev protocol decision of December 2015 has been signed outside the negotiation process and without securing Pridnestrovie's approval.
«This is one of the most pressing and relevant issues in bilateral relations between export (working) groups and political representatives. We initiated a number of meetings with technical experts to discuss all aspects of this problem as a whole. As a result, the Moldovan partners failed to counter-argue the proposals presented by our side. We presented a technological scheme and an additional protocol which would determine the way of importing cargoes by means of Pridnestrovie's railway rolling stock," noted the minister.
«Unfortunately, our Moldovan colleagues claimed they had little power to solve this issue. A break was taken after which the Moldovan officials said that an optimal solution to this problem was the subordination of the Pridnestrovian railway to the Moldovan railway. This proposal is politicised, inadmissible and goes counter to the logic of the negotiation process," added Vitaly Ignatyev.
He also said that there are currently no signs that the Moldovan side is ready to substantively consider Pridnestrovie's proposals and solve this acute humanitarian and social problem.
The discussion of the situation around GUKP Pridnestrovian Railway has been put on the agenda of an enlarged meeting of the Security Council and State Council of the PMR, scheduled for 26 May 2016.
