At the meeting Minister of Transport, Maxim Sokolov, delivered a report On the Main Results of Socio-Economic Development of the Transport Sector in 2012 and Objectives for 2013 and Mid-Term Prospects to 2015.
He said the Russian transport sector performed stably in 2012. The export of transport services increased almost 14% to reach $17.3 billion. In 2012, all branches of transport contributed 450 billion roubles in taxes to the budget of the Russian Federation, including 380 billion roubles to the federal budget. The federal budget also received an additional 50 billion roubles from the dividends and the sale of transport shares.
Federal budget investment in the transport industry, according to the Minister, totalled 440 billion roubles in 2012. The number of employees increased by 3% and reached an estimated 4.2 million people.
Russian airlines carried 74 million passengers in 2012, 15.4% over 2011. Public railway transport carried over 1 billion passengers. The volume of transshipment cargo at Russian ports in 2012 rose by 6% compared with 2011 and totaled 570 million tonnes.
Sokolov said that in order to improve the results and make more efficient use of budget resources, all the Ministry’s activity in 2013-2015 will be focused on the achievement of objectives and the fulfillment of goals set in the government Transport System Development programme
According to the Minister, over 2 trillion roubles will be invested in transport development in 2013-2015. Full implementation of the programme measures will substantially improve transport efficiency and help achieve the targets set in the presidential executive orders of May 7, 2012.
Population mobility in 2016, according to Sokolov, will increase 23% and reach 8,500 kilometres per person. By 2030, average mobility is expected to total 15,500 kilometres per person, comparable to the transport mobility rates in developed countries.
The fulfillment of goals to develop the infrastructure for all kinds of transport based on the principles of logistics and multimodality of transportation will ease the transport burden on the economy by 0.3% of GDP (700 billion roubles at current prices). Owing to the higher competitiveness of the Russian transport system, export of transport services will grow by 50%. The productivity of labour in the transport sector in 2013-2015 will increase by 9.5% compared with 2011. A package of road safety measures combined with the improvement of roads will reduce the number of traffic accidents by 15% in 2016.
