Black Sea Ring Highway Caravan: Connecting the 12 BSEC economies!

Istanbul - The BSEC Black Sea Ring Highway Caravan was announced today during a press conference hosted for this occasion by the Permanent International Secretariat of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation.

The objective of this public-private initiative is to collect valuable data en route with respect to non-physical barriers to road transport in the BSEC region and to road infrastructure around the Black Sea Basin, while transporting goods between the BSEC countries as well as promoting the BSEC Black Sea Ring Highway project to the BSEC people.

This international commercial truck caravan, composed of 12 vehicles from BSEC Members States (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine), will start in Belgrade, Serbia, on 19 April 2007 on the occasion of the BSEC Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting, and will end its 7. 250 km-long journey in Istanbul, Turkey, by the end of May 2007.

The Secretary General of the BSEC Organisation, H.E. Ambassador Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, declared, “In a globalised economy, road transport has become a vital production tool. Only with effective road transport will BSEC countries better connect their economies.”

IRU General Delegate Haydar Özkan, added, “By identifying all obstacles to efficient goods transport between BSEC countries and around the Black sea basin, from visas for professional drivers to loading permits, the caravan will significantly contribute to the facilitation of road transport in the region.”

A logbook will be set up and the journey filmed, especially at borders, internal customs points, during national and international ceremonies and at every infrastructure bottleneck. All data accumulated during the Caravan will be analysed and published in a Caravan Brochure while a special Video will relate the whole Caravan’s story.

Organised under the patronage of BSEC, and supported by the International Road Transport Union and the Union of Road Transport Associations in the BSEC Region (BSEC-URTA), the conference featured, among others, the Secretary General of the BSEC Organisation H.E. Ambassador Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, the IRU General Delegate to the Middle East and region, Haydar Özkan, and the BSEC-URTA Deputy Secretary General, Adrian Albu.

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Press contact: Lobna.Allamii@iru.org, +90 212 284 9747 or 212 264 0701

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