5 August, Vitebsk /Sergey Kochetov - BELTA/. The volume of export of services of the Belarusian automotive transport has grown by more than 1.5 times in January-May, as reported today to journalists by Nikolay Borovoy, Chairman of the Association of International Road Carriers "BAMAP", a BELTA correspondent reports. According to data for five months, foreign currency receipts from the export of automotive transport services amounted to $356.6 million (growth rate of 156.1% compared to the same period in 2010 and over 200% compared to the five months of 2009). This includes freight road transport, where this figure amounted to almost $330 million, which is 60% more than in the five months of 2010. In the current year, export operations are increasing, and carriers are growing in the volume of services provided, emphasized Nikolay Borovoy. Based on the results of the foreign economic activity of carriers, a positive balance of services of road transport in the amount of over $206 million has been formed, which is about 23% of the total positive balance of services of Belarus. By 2015, carriers face the task of increasing service exports by 2.5 times, which will require considerable effort. Today, the main restraining factors for the growth of efficiency of transport organizations are vehicle downtime at loading and unloading points, and waiting for document processing at customs clearance points. Tax administration also needs simplification, believes the head of BAMAP. This year, the situation with the renewal of the rolling stock has improved. Based on the results of the first half of the year, road transport enterprises purchased about 1,000 vehicles. As a result, up to 60% of the fleet of Belarusian carriers consists of vehicles meeting the Euro-3, Euro-4, and Euro-5 environmental standards. The renewal was mainly due to the purchase of imported equipment, with domestic MAZ vehicles accounting for up to 13% of the carriers' fleet. In total, the fleet of road transport organizations numbers about 12,000 trucks, and transportation is carried out to more than 40 countries worldwide. "Our task is not just to transport goods, but also to organize safe operations," noted Nikolay Borovoy, adding that a long-haul truck driver must be an example of exemplary behavior on the road. -0-

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