Transport and Logistics

Geographical position of the Republic of Belarus determined its role as an important transit hub in Eastern Europe.

Belarus is located at the crossroads of major transport routes and connects Western Europe with the countries of the East, as well as the Black Sea region with the Baltic Sea region.

By the end of 2019, the share of the transport sector in the gross domestic product of the Republic of Belarus made up 5.9%. Transport services account for almost 42% of the country's total services exports and more than 50% of the balance of foreign trade in services. In 2019 the export of transport services generated more than $4 billion, with the trade surplus in this sector at $2.1 billion.

Around 11,300 organizations of various forms of ownership and 33,900 individual entrepreneurs operate in the transport sector of the Republic of Belarus.

Since the beginning of the current five-year period, the transport sector has contributed greatly to Belarus’ economic growth; the gross added value of transport services rose by 9.3%. The industry’s performance indicators have improved: cargo turnover of road, rail, air and water transport has increased by 17.4% compared to 2015, and passenger turnover by 10.1%.

At the same time, there is a redistribution of population mobility in favor of air transport: the share of air transportation in 2019 was about 22% of the total passenger turnover of the country.

In December 2019, Minsk National Airport celebrated its five millionth passenger.

A number of infrastructure projects are being implemented to improve the quality, efficiency and safety of transport services.

The year 2019 saw the completion of the projects to renovate the R80 Sloboda – Papernya highway, the M6 Minsk-Grodno-state border of the Republic of Poland (Bruzgi) highway, and the bridge over the Mukhavets River on the M1/E 30 highway as well as the construction of an access road to the Bolbasovo multi-modal industrial and logistics complex.

The second artificial turf runway has been put in service at Minsk National Airport. The government continues electrifying railway tracks and upgrading the rolling stock of  Belarusian Railways. In the field of water transport, work is under way on a section of the E40 international waterway and navigation facilities of the Dnieper-Bug Canal.

Development of the transport industry is closely linked to the development of the logistics system of the Republic of Belarus. Currently, there are 60 logistics centres of various types in the country.

Belarus is expanding container train transportation between China and Europe across its territory and is building cargo terminals for Belarusian Railways on the Belarusian-Polish border. The Transportation Management Center was set up.

The project to build a large regional logistics center on the territory of the China-Belarus Industrial Park Great Stone is in full swing.

Currently, the first unit of the logistics complex with a total area of 50,000m2 with technological platforms for loading and unloading and a container terminal are fully functional on the territory of the park.

The next stage provides for the construction of a 800,000m2 cargo terminal with the participation of the management company of the largest river port in Europe –Duisburg Hafen, the logistics operator China Merchants Group,  Belarusian Railways and Hupac Intermodal SA (Switzerland). Construction of the terminal will allow increasing traffic flows through Belarus.

The transport sector keeps working to improve its technological processes, increase automation and digitalization. In 2019, the Republic of Belarus joined the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road concerning the electronic consignment note.