The Business Forum “1520 Strategic Partnership: Asia-Pacific Region” was focused on the East–West railway corridor

The commercial infrastructure and technology basis for transit traffic via the East–West railway corridor was the key topic of the international business forum “1520 Strategic Partnership: the Asia-Pacific Region”, which was organised in Shenzhen, China, on 14–16 October 2014. The event was held for the first time as part of the Ninth International Logistics and Transportation Fair (CILF).

The business programme of the Forum was centred on operation of the EU–1520–APR land corridor and its seamless integration into the architecture of the Eurasian transport system. Specifically, the plenary discussion addressed the commercial infrastructure of transit traffic: the freight base and infrastructure capacities for transitting commodities between East and West. Another discussion focused on technology processes and specific features of transportation between Europe and Asia, namely tariff and non-tariff barriers, electronic customs declaration, transport documents, etc.

Another important component of the Forum was discussion of the engagement between railways and seaports and coordination of their activities for building reliable supply chains in intercontinental freight traffic.

The mission of the Forum “1520 Strategic Partnership” is to inform manufacturing companies of China and the APR countries about the East–West transit services offered by Russian Railways and other transport and logistics companies of the “broad gauge” countries.

The Forum participants included senior executives of the national transportation companies of the 1520 and 1435 areas, representatives of international organisations, freight owners, seaport operators, rolling stock operators, research and consulting agencies.
The Forum was organised by Business Dialogue LLC under the auspices of Russian Railways.