NDI coordinator St. Petersburg State University of Economics (UNECON) organized a conference “Integration potential of Logistics in the global economy” on 25 September 2014. The Conference brought together researchers, business and policy makers to discuss issues ranging from logistics corridor developments to the need of integrated solutions to increase the efficiency of logistics in Russia. The impacts of the current trade restrictions on supply chains were in focus.
During the recent years, cargo volumes in Russia have grown immensely. Despite considerable investments in logistics infrastructure (e.g. ports and logistics centers) and also in IT-technologies, the logistics sector remains deficient and challenges with supply chains are common day. This causes considerable losses to companies and results in higher costs of logistics in Russia compared to most other countries. Tighter integration of trade flows, business processes, information and stakeholders is essential in improving the efficiency of logistics.
The prevailing situation with trade restrictions causes further challenges. Due to import restrictions, companies are searching for alternative sources of production both domestically and globally, which also means developing new supply chains. Also, the existing supply chains and logistics processes need further improvement as the delivery times have become longer. This an essential question for example in food stuff transports.
Despite the current hardships, the development of border crossing point on the Russian border with Norway, Finland, Estonia and Latvia continues with the support of EU funding. For example, Russian border crossing point to Norway is being improved with the support from Kolarctic ENPI CBC financing program with Russian co-funding of 1 billion RUB. The project will increase the quality and speed of crossing the Russian-Norwegian border.
Prof. Dr.-Ing Gebhard Hafer (second from the left) announcing a new double degree Master’s program.
Prof. Vladimir Vasilievich Shcherbakov, director of the Department of Logistics and Trade Policy at UNECON and Prof. Dr.-Ing Gebhard Hafer from the bbw University of Applied Sciences also announced the creation of a new double degree Master’s program “Trade and Logistics”. This two-year Master’s program includes a one-year study at the St. Petersburg State University of Economics and a one-year study at the bbw University of Applied Sciences.
St. Petersburg State University of Economics is co-coordinator of NDI in 2014-2015.
