By Anna Overina
Belarus’ Transport and Communications Minister, Ivan Shcherbo, and the Executive Manager of Belgian AOI NV, Freddy Opsomer, recently met to discuss the project. A step-by-step schedule for the investment project’s realisation has already been developed — to be signed in the near future. “The participants of the talks have agreed that the documents should be registered as soon as possible, since this will allow work to begin in December,” the Transport and Communications Ministry’s Press Service tells us. AOI NV is to fully supervise the design of the external and internal infrastructure while Belarusians will physically construct the site. The Belgian company is actively liaising with other foreign investors and, recently, met with Lufthansa and Deutsche Bahn to discuss the financing of the project.
During the talks, Mr. Opsomer noted that the transport-and-logistics park envisages that cargo will not only transit but will be initially processed before travelling on to the next destination. He stresses the importance of ensuring a connection between the transport-and-logistics park and the rest of the world, primarily with the National Airport.
Belarus and Belgian AOI NV (Antwerpse Ontwikkelings en Investeringsmaatschappij NV) have concluded an investment agreement to establish a transport-and-logistics park — Airpark Minsk — at Minsk National Airport. The total volume of investments amounts to 289m Euros. Universal infrastructure is planned, allowing cargo to be processed, collected and stored before travelling by air, rail and road. Additionally, it is to provide various logistical services, alongside other services and goods. The first sites at the transport-and-logistics park should become operational in 2013, with the whole site complete by 2021.
