OREANDA-NEWS. November 09, 2010. The administration of the free economic zone Gomel-Raton will present an investment project at the Belarus Investment Forum in Frankfurt am Main. The project envisages the creation of a transportation and logistics center in the free economic zone, representatives of the Economy Committee of the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee said.

The project is one of the main ones laid down by a complex program, which is meant to develop the transport infrastructure of Belarus’ southeastern region. A 200 hectare land plot has been allocated for the future transportation and logistics center. The land is within boundaries of the free economic zone. It is 15km far from Gomel and is in immediate proximity to the Belarusian-Russian border and the Ukrainian-Belarusian border at the crossroads of major motorways.

Specialists believe that the project fits well the concept of the European transport corridor Black Sea – Baltic Sea of the Eastern Partnership Initiative. The future transportation and logistics center would be able to provide forwarding and logistics services to local companies and would be able to handle transit cargo traffic. The project has been presented in the Baltic States and has received positive response from major cargo carriers.

The logistics center would be able to prepare cargoes for shipment (weighing, packaging, labeling, batching and sorting), store, transship and insure them. There are plans to enable electronic paperwork for cargo transportation.

The free economic zone Gomel-Raton was created by the relevant decree of the Belarus president in 1998. Its territories are located in the city of Gomel and Gomel District, in the towns of Mozyr and Rechitsa, occupying a total of 5,300 hectares. At present the free economic zone is home to 45 enterprises, including 24 business entities with a share of foreign capital from 12 countries (Germany, France, Russia, Austria, Czechia, Turkey, Iran, Lichtenstein and others). FEZ residents carry out export and import operations with 60 countries. Since its inception the foreign trade turnover of the free economic zone has approached USD 2 billion, including over USD 280 million in January-September 2010.