A year ahead of the law
A long-suffering law On Seaports of Russian Federation is in the fair way to be read in the State Duma this year. This time, Edinaya Rossiya undertakes to promote the draft. On February 12, Boris Gryzlov, speaker of the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament, revealed the conception of his own party as regards the law on ports, at the meeting dedicated to development of the port-industrial complex in the Gulf of Finland.
New chances
Gryzlov promised that the document will be introduced for consideration at the State Duma within one and a half month and that the first reading of the draft will be held in spring. Gryzlov expects the draft will be passed before the end of the current year. Gryzlov says on of the main deterrents restricting development of the port economy is absence of regulatory framework. “It is difficult to speak about ports development when legal relations concerning construction and maintenance of port infrastructure facilities are not properly regulated,” he said.
The conception revealed by Gryzlov covers six major aspects to be regulated by the law. First of all, it is differentiation of a seaport as a property complex from organizations providing services related to port activities, as well as differentiation of responsibilities between authorities in order to “exclude duplication of functions”. The document pays special attention to basic principles for providing of service in the port. Besides, the draft law should contain complete list of port charges to be collected in the seaports of Russia.
It is supposed that the document will regulate rights and liabilities of the parties involved in transshipment of hazardous cargo as well as liabilities of the sea terminal operator and requirements to transshipment of hazardous cargo. “We need the norms to regulate cooperation of the sea terminal operator with railway and other types of transport,” Gryzlov said. He also noted the necessity to regulate land relations concerning the port property. “I think plots of land within the boundaries of a seaport excluding the plots occupied by facilities needed for defense, safety and customs purposes should be referred to the category of transport land,” Gryzlov noted, “thus, we preserve both private, state and municipal property forms”. However, considering possible strategic role of land in some of the ports there should be a prohibition of private property for foreign natural persons and legal entities. At last, it is important to make a list of facilities withdrawn from commerce (those which may be only publicly owned).
From authority to authority
Despite modernization of port infrastructure its development is hindered by absence of legal framework: the law on ports have been passing from one authority to another for about seven years already. “The Government promises to develop such a document,” Gryzlov said. The issue was supported by the President. However, the government bill needs to be approved by different Ministries and authorities. In summer it was decided to speed up the work on the draft. By that time, the draft was approved by the key federal authorities. On June 2, the document was approved by the Ministry of Justice.
The absence of the law on ports influences, first of all the possibility of signing agreements on lease of hydraulic structures since it hinders coordination with Federal Property Management Agency and Ministry of Transport. No new lease agreements were signed by the end of 2006. According to Serik Zhusupov, Executive Director of the Association of Russian Commercial Seaports, none of the companies operating in the port may sign commercial contracts today as any agreement may be terminated at any moment. None of the decisions taken in relation of berth lease at the level of Marine Board and Transport Ministry was executed by the Property Management Agency, a structural subdivision of Rosmorport. Transport Minister Igor Levitin has given an individual instruction to develop a plan of corresponding activities. No plan has been developed yet and we don’t know when the action is to start. Plenty of problems are created in order to escape solution of a problem, Zhusupov thinks. He also attributes decrease of cargo turnover in the port of Saint Petersburg to activities of Rosmorport Property Management Agency, which carries out evaluation of berths having not received any specifications for that.
Not in line with the level
National port complex does not correspond our national requirements. In 2006, Russian ports handled about 420 million tons of cargo; in 2005, the result was much lower - 407 million tons. Growth of cargo turnover may be attributed mainly to growth of oil transshipment volumes while transshipment of dry cargo demonstrated no significant changes, which is not enough considering economic growth. “Large volumes of export and import cargo are handled at the ports of foreign countries: Baltic states and Ukraine,” Gryzlov says. “Transit possibilities of our country are not used in full”. In particular, Saint Petersburg handles about 20% of all Russian foreign trade and transit cargo. It is expected that adoption of the law on ports and implementation of the project «Saint Petersburg – sea capital of Russia» will raise this share to 50% of all Russian export to the states of EU with the same share of Russian import.
The law on ports being discussed for seven years failed to become a trump card for the deputies in their previous electioneering. Today, the port community hopes this season is to bring dividends as the candidates for deputies of State Duma will not be able to ignore the draft.