Law on ports will be enhanced

Russia is on a path of improvements of its national legislation on sea ports aimed to increase the investment attractiveness of the Russian market of stevedoring services. In a recent interview Deputy Director of State Policy for Maritime and River Transport of the Ministry of Transport of Russia Nadezhda Zhikhareva told the PortNews IAA correspondent what amendments to the law on sea ports are to be made in the near future.
 
- Nadezhda, at what stage is now the process of amendments to the Law on seaports? Have you had any differences with the stevedoring businesses or relevant agencies while working on the changes?
 
- The bill amending the law on sea ports is now being agreed with the federal authorities. We have received comments on some provisions of the bill from the ministries reviewing the bill. And we are now at the stage of settlement of different approach, conducting meetings to resolve them. We have resolved some differences with the Ministry of Finance of Russia and the Russian Ministry of Economic Development on land and property issues.

Comments by other federal agencies concern the amendments aimed at clarifying some of the concepts set forth in the law and the rules related to the expansion of ports and state regulations at ports. These remarks are not of a fundamental nature and are expected to be removed in the course of conciliation.

The bill had been considered by the Association of Commercial Sea Ports (ASOP) and Russian Railways (RZD) before it was submitted for interagency coordination.

The remarks were largely related to the amendments aimed at streamlining the business relations of marine terminals operators and rail carriers. The Ministry had held a series of meetings, including those at ports, which resulted in approvals of amendments to the law on sea ports and to the Charter of railway transport both by RZD and the ASOP. The amendments contain the provision that the Ministry of Transport is to approve the standard form of a contract between rail carriers and marine terminal operators, and provide for establishing the procedure of planning of cargo loading / unloading as a compulsory condition in the standard contract, as well as financial responsibilities of the parties.
 
- Will the responsibilities of Rosmorrechflot, regarding the management of state property in the ports, be extended? How this may affect the procedure of lease agreements?
 
Presently, the work has been nearly completed on procedure of entering into lease agreements for federal real property in accordance with the Law on the sea ports. Such lease contacts have been signed with all operators of marine terminals, except PJSC Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP).

Following the experience of signing such lease agreements for federal real property in accordance with the ports law, it has became necessary to make amendments to the law regarding the possibility of establishing different periods of property lease, taking into account the lease terms, property sublease, improvement of the tendering procedures when entering into a lease agreement.

The maximum federal property lease term will be 49 years, similar to that set forth in the current law. In addition, it is proposed to establish that if the tenant is obliged to perform on his own account the leased facility overhaul the minimum lease term of the facility may not be less than 15 years, and in the case of its reconstruction – 30 years.

The appropriate changes are provided for in the bill. The changes aim at improving the efficiency of federal property and might motivate tenants to carry out repair and reconstruction of the property.

The actual procedure of entering into lease agreement, provided by the current version of the law on sea ports, will not be changed.

New provisions in the bill will be applied to newly concluded lease agreements.

The bill also provides for the consolidation of the Rosmorrechflot decision-making authority on reservation and withdrawal of land located within the boundaries of the port, on the security territory, sanitary protection zone and other areas of the seaport, and the land allocated for building port infrastructure, on approval of the location of the facility, the laying out of lots within the port boundaries and their disposal. Some of these powers are already provided for in the Regulations on Rosmorrechflot, but now, similar to other agencies of the Ministry, the authority delegated to Rosmorrechflot will be set forth in the law.
 
- Is the introduction of a new Model scheme in the ports making progress? Have you succeeded in reducing ship delays in the ports?
 
The new Model scheme includes cancellation of mandatory on-board physical inspection of a ship upon her arrival. The new eased procedure provides for simultaneous loading / offloading operations with inspection of ship / cargo and formalities by boarder and customs officers. The corresponding changes to the Model scheme were approved on November 3, 2010, effective as of March 8, 2011.

Currently, the technological schemes of the border / cargo crossing procedure through all operating checkpoints have been aligned with the new Model scheme. Given that the interdepartmental orders of Russian FSB and the Russian FCS did not fully comply with the adopted amendments, it has taken several months to introduce the changes and settle all issues with these agencies. Today, the new Model scheme is fully realized in part of eased procedure of cargo clearance. The FSB border control is still carried out onboard the ship by officers. Currently, customs authorities at some ports do not participate in the on-board physical inspections in 98-percent cases.

The possibility of combining cargo handling operations and the ship / cargo inspection formalities may be also used while conducting the state control. However, the decision of the law enforcement and regulatory agencies depends on the availability of appropriate capabilities at the checkpoint, such as CCTV, the video surveillance system, to monitor the ship at berth.

As for specific ports, it its worthy of note that the new Model scheme is applied to all cargo ships at the checkpoints of the ports of Vyborg, Vysotsk, Kavkaz, Prigorodnoye, Taganrog, Taman, Temryuk and to most of vessels - in the ports of Kaliningrad, Novorossiysk, Sochi, Ust-Luga Tuapse, Big Port St. Petersburg, Vladivostok and Primorsk.

It is believed to be inappropriate to apply the new Model scheme eased procedure to transit vessels making calls at some ports, such as Azov, Rostov-on-Don, Kholmsk, etc.

Certainly, the use of the new Model scheme will enable us to completely avoid unnecessary stopovers and ship delays caused by the control procedures. Therefore, Russian Ministry of Transport, in conjunction with port authorities, is monitoring how the new Model scheme is applied at ports.

Together with other measures undertaken by the Ministry this will help improve the competitiveness of Russian ports and as a result their investment attractiveness.

Over the past few years’ port facilities in all sea basins have been significantly upgraded, including investments implemented within the public-private partnership (PPP) tools. To keep up this trend the appropriate agencies make everything to ensure safe operation of port infrastructure and safety of shipping in ports and on access channels; to create environment that would increase the competitiveness of the country’s ports through provision of refined services, reduction of administrative barriers and balanced tariff policy; to improve public administration in maritime port sector.