ArmInfo. The European Commission jointly with the World Bank presented a new program of indicative actions on Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) for the Eastern Partnership countries, i.e. Armenia, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus and Azerbaijan.
According to the press service of the EU mission in Armenia, the project implementation financing and investment will amount 13 billion euros, which will be used to build and repair 4,800 km of motorways and railways, 6 ports and 11 logistics centers.
The projects included in the investment plan were identified together with the Eastern Partnership countries and with the assistance of the International Financial Institutions. Those projects will make possible the construction and rehabilitation of new and existing roads, rail, ports, airports as well as logistical centres and border crossing points. The priority investments include both short-term projects to be completed by 2020 and long-term projects aiming to improve transport links on the TEN-T by 2030. Along infrastructural investments, the presented investment plan aims to bring forward key reforms for the transport sector and improve road safety in the region. The development of project on the TEN-T is expected to foster regional development through improving access to economic opportunities, harnessing the benefits of industrial agglomeration and increasing market competition.
Note that since January 2014, the European Union has developed a new policy in the field of transport, which is based on TEN-T - Trans-European Transport Network. The purpose of the new policy is quite ambitious - to connect the continent from West to East and from North to South, or, following the wording of European Commissioner Mr. Siim Kallas, "to put the appropriate segments of the transport network to the right places, thereby creating a single network instead of the existing transport mosaic".If this strategy is implemented successfully, then already in 2050, a trip around the EU will take an average of half an hour, while the new transport network will connect 94 ports, 38 airports, as well as 15 thousand kilometers of modernized high-speed railways. More than 24 billion euros were allocated for the implementation of TEN-T.