Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yurii Vaskov outlined the priority areas of development of the Mariupol port during a visit to the port on 7 April. In particular, according to the deputy minister, the priorities include restoration of railway infrastructure and development of coastal shipping.
"The priorities include work on restoration of the railway infrastructure. We are hoping that restoration of the railway infrastructure will begin after stabilization of the situation, which will have a positive impact on reduction of the cost of delivery of goods by train. Development of coastal shipping is also a priority. Because the railway infrastructure currently does not allow full delivery of raw materials to factories by rail, we certainly supported and continue to support development of coastal shipping," Vaskov said.d
In addition, according to the deputy minister, the Ministry of Infrastructure is currently working to bring the charges levied on foreign-flagged vessels performing coastal shipping operations in line with similar charges levied on Ukrainian-flagged vessels. According to him, this is necessary because there are currently insufficient Ukrainian vessels for coastal shipping, as a result of which manufacturing, logistics, and transport companies are involving foreign vessels in coastal shipping operations.
"Coastal shipping is expensive. There is a difference in coastal ship calls for vessels operating under foreign and Ukrainian flags. As of today, the ministry has taken the position that this inequality should be eliminated, and we will make the relevant initiatives. A number of regulations should be amended," he said.
In addition, the deputy minister said that the problem involving the dredging of the Mariupol port’s waters has already been solved. "As of today, permission to carry out dredging operations to the specified depth is being granted only once and it is valid indefinitely. The Mariupol port has already received such permission, so the regulatory issue has been resolved, hopefully forever. The technical problem was caused by the untimely organization of a competition to perform the dredging operation. There were objective and subjective reasons for this, but the problem has been solved. The contracts that have been concluded suggest that this problem has been solved for the coming years," Vaskov said.
