Project Adriatic Danube Black Sea Multimodal Platform

SEE/C/0004/3.3/X,
WP5, Act.5.3 Designing the ADB model of MDC

DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGY FOR CREATION OF MDC IN

BULGARIA FOR ADRIATIC DANUBE BLACK SEA REGION

Release date, period: 17.10.2013

Responsible organisation: Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, PP9
Version: Draft version

The publication reflects the authors view and the Managing Authority of the SEE Programme is not
liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

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CONTENT
1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 3
2. GOALS OF THE BULGARIAN MDC .............................................................................................. 4
3. INSTITUTIONAL SET-UP .................................................................................................................... 6
4. INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVITIES ............................................................................................................ 6
5. REVENUE-GENERATING ACTIVITIES ......................................................................................... 8
6. PARTNERSHIP ....................................................................................................................................... 8
7. LOCATION OF MDC ...........................................................................................................................10
8. ROLE OF TRANSNATIONAL MDC FOR DEVELOPMENT OF MULTIMODAL
TRANSPORT. ........................................................................................................................................11
9. FUNCTIONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL SYNERGIES WITH EXISTING CENTRES
FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT REGIONAL AGENCIES ...............................................13
10.CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ..........................................................................15

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1. Introduction
Efficient transport services and adequate transport infrastructure are preconditions for a wellfunctioning internal market. Efficient transport and logistics are keys to the organisation of
production, to the integration of markets and to the development of trade. The main
objectives of promoting competition in transport are to minimise its costs, to ensure the most
efficient use of each mode (co-modality), as well as to ensure a high quality of services. The
main direct economic benefits to be expected from these reforms include lower prices and a
better contribution to other EU policy agenda. Air transport has been liberalised at an early
stage while road transport bottlenecks were progressively removed. In comparison, ports and
railways have been sheltered from competition due to either insufficient regulatory
requirements or insufficient transposition of directives by Member States.
Intermodality is an essential component of the European Unions Common Transport Policy
for sustainable mobility. It provides the policy tool for a systems approach to transport in view
of integrating the different modes into one coherent transport system which caters for the
needs of Europes citizens and industry.
The European Commissions characterization of intermodal transport goes beyond earlier
definitions that have been put forward by several institutions, such as the European
Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT), defining intermodal transport as follows:
The movement of goods in one and the same loading unit or road vehicle, which uses
successively two or more modes of transport without handling the goods themselves
in changing modes
For a few years, the European Commission has been advocating shifting transport activity
from road towards railways and shipping. This goal is legitimate as railways is a clean
transport and can contribute to climate change mitigation and to the reduction of oil
dependency. At the same time, ports contribute to the export performance and the
competitiveness of the maritime sector. EU ports have the potential for sustaining the
economic recovery and contributing to the long term competitiveness of European industries.
The well-functioning of these two transport modes is crucial. However, as illustrated by the
experiences of programme countries, ports and railways are very often inefficiently operated
despite the huge amounts of public money poured into state-owned enterprises.
Furthermore, in spite of the modal shift policies of the past decades, railways and inland
waterways have failed to increase their modal shares in most Member States. Inland
transport continues to be dominated by road transport.
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The idea of the project Adriatic - Danube - Black Sea (ADB) multimodal platform is to
develop and promote environmentally friendly, multimodal transport solutions from the ports
in the South East Europe (SEE) programme area (Black Sea, Aegean, Adriatic) to inland
countries and regions along a selected pilot transnational network. This will be done by
developing and establishing a "multimodal transport development platform", which integrates
different regions and stakeholders from the transport business. ADB Multiplatform aims at:
developing a network of multimodal hubs in the SEE area, with common quality and
performance standards, connected by innovative ICT and transport services;
developing accessibility and trade within SEE area and corridors addressed;
making multimodal transport a real alternative to road for hinterland in the
Adriatic/Aegean/Black Sea Ports, through common actions for the development of
multimodal transport;
making rail a reliable solution for economic operators of SEE area, through the
development of a main integrated rail corridor connecting Black Sea to landlocked
countries, with branches to main Adriatic Ports;
integration of rail and inland waterway transport through the enhancement of main
rail-river hubs and promotion of rail maritime intermodality;
protecting environment of SEE area, through the shift of road traffic to rail and inland
waterway, and the development of international agreements for developing policies
for external costs internalisation
The cooperation between heterogeneous and trans-national partners brings mutual benefits
to the actors involved in the project and enhances the reaching of the common results
expected in the project, such as the implementation of common ICT tools for monitoring and
tracking transport services, the establishment of Corridor Quality Networks (CQN),
Multimodal Development Centres (MDC), a common agreement on external costs
internalisation measures, and the development of corridor based transport services.

2. Goals of the Bulgarian MDC

Transport policy goals are changing. Today, development of intermodality (co-modality),
which means the efficient use of transport modes operating on their own or in multimodal
integration, has become (together with logistics point of view) very important transport sector
development trend. Intermodal logistics concentrates on the transport part of the whole
supply chain (i.e. on transport logistics) in favour of intermodal solutions and covers the
planning, organisation, management, control and execution (implementation) of intermodal
freight transport door to door.
Promotion of multimodal transport is one of the most important trends of the European
transport policy. European MDC network will be a platform that brings together main actors in
the transport and logistics field. A MDC is a new framework of co-operation among different
transport actors (on regional and national level) to improve knowledge, management and
information system for intermodal transport, as well as to prepare and to support an effective
intermodal transport solutions.
The basic tasks of Bulgarian MDC are:
to increase the awareness of intermodal transport among shippers and forwarding
agents and logistic providers;
to provide shippers with information on the many and varied possibilities of intermodal
transport, especially with regard to intermodal door-to-door transport;
to analyze the problems which might affect the intermodal transport;
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to set up and maintain a database on intermodal transport services;

To be an independent source of freight and transport information for trade and
industry, as well as for municipalities and governmental institutions.
to take active part in the promotion of the effective intermodal transport network in the
Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea Region (ADBR);
to execute scientific research studies in the sphere of intermodal transport
development;
to disseminate information on intermodal transport developments and innovations;
to promote co-operation between intermodal transport hubs and logistic centres both
at national and at transnational level.
to draft a Bulgarian intermodal transport strategy and present it to the governmental
institutions for approval;
to adopt information on intermodal transport and logistics technologies development
trends as well as innovation and best practices in the EU countries;
to support efforts of the cities and the regional administrations in establishing
intermodal transport, public logistics centres (freight villages) and in developing their
network in Bulgaria;
to promote the cooperation between intermodal transport hubs and logistics centres
both on national and international level;
to take part in the establishment of the effective common intermodal transport
communication network in the Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea Region;

The first steps to realize the goal of Bulgarian MDC are:

institutional set-up;
collection of information on the main shippers and preparation of database and
placement this database on website;
collection of information on main intermodal transport companies and preparation of
database on IMT services on national, as well as on Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea Region
level and placement this information on website;
selection of information on external sources: information on ports, railways and road
terminal facilities (on national and on Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea Region level ) and
placement of this information on a website ;
preparation of a database on intermodal transport operators, terminals and shippers
and placement of the information on a website ;
collection of information for international market developments, as well as intermodal
transport development programmes in EU, regional (ADB), national and municipal
level;
exchanging information via direct mailing (direct communication) on transnational
level.
Among other intermodal transport development trends, it could be emphasized on the
following:
drafting of a National Intermodal Transport Research Agenda ;
The development of new ways to apply modelling instruments for the definition and
assessment of transport demand as well as the application of progressive modelling
instruments (simulation, visualization). Special attention should be given to a stronger
support of the exchange of experiences in transport modelling between older and
newer EU member states by the EU, as well as the support of a standardisation of
transport modelling approaches throughout all EU members; development of an
intelligent transport system.

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3. Institutional set-up
It is crucial that the management of the Multimodal Development Centre have to be
separated from individual commercial transport, logistics and other service operators in order
to obtain a neutral management of the and Multimodal Development Centre. A MDC is
defined as a neutral non-profit organisation acting as a catalyst to develop intermodal freight
transport solutions along European corridors showing high intermodal potential.
The basic conditions for a good functioning MDC (according to EC Strategy) are as follows:
Guarantees neutrality of information;
Financial independence;
Financing is provided by stakeholders in intermodal transport, with the support of the
regional or national authorities;
Independence and neutral location (not one operator based).
The aim of the concept for MDC is to establish a strong network of intermodal promotion
centres which co-operate to represent a focal point for promoting intermodality.
The main actors in the Bulgarian Intermodal transport area are as follows:
Government and municipality Ministry of Transport Information Technology and
Communications, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Regional Development, National
Company for Railway Infrastructure, Agency Road Infrastructure, Executive Agency
for Exploration and Maintenance of the Danube River, Agency for small and medium
sized enterprises, Executive Agency "Maritime Administration", Executive Agency
"Port Administration".
Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and its members
NGOs.
Forwarding companies
Carriers
Shippers
Taking into account the above mentioned conditions for the establishment and development
of a MDC as well as the goals and tasks of Multimodal Development Centres the best way to
create and maintain MDC is to establish public private partnerships, which will ensure self
sustainability of the Centre.

4. Institutional activities
The idea of MDC is to perform the following main functions:
MDCs shall bridge the knowledge gap between transport supply and demand;
help overcome barriers to intermodal solutions;
Generally improve communication between stakeholders on the demand side
(shippers, forwarders) the supply side (transport operators, infrastructure providers)
and the policy side (authorities and regulators).

In order to achieve the objectives, MDC has to cover a wide range of activities in deferent
areas concerning the development of multimodal transport at national level and international
level. More precisely this means:
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Coordination activities at the national level with all stakeholders participating in the
preparation of strategies for development of better conditions for intermodal transport
in Bulgaria; preparation of proposals for harmonization of legal conditions for
multimodal transport with European recommendations; initiating special workshops
with other stakeholders in order to prepare common strategy for multimodal transport
development in Bulgaria, development of the proposal and participate to the national
funded projects related to the multimodal transport, distribution of external documents
to stakeholders (e.g. documents on market developments)/information on national
and EU programmes.
Cooperation with international bodies dealing with intermodal transport participating
in the main working groups related to the multimodal transport, involvement in the EU
projects related to intermodality, establishing contacts within EU promotion centres
network, close cooperation with European Intermodal Association and so on.
Promotion of Multimodal transport preparation of brochures promoting Multimodal
Transport (MTT), preparation of website of MDC, conduct newsletter campaigns,
organisation of workshops with target groups and government analysing problems &
bottlenecks, preparing fact-sheets on individual countries (e.g. external trades, ports,
hinterland terminals,..), Establishing and maintaining a database on MMT services
and transport operators.

Hereunder are details for traditional tasks (member oriented) of MDC:

Platform
Initiate and organise events for cross-sector meetings and discussion to help
bridge the gap between the supply side and the demand side and
communicate requirements to the policy side.
(Market) Research for the feasibility of intermodal transport services
Analyse market opportunities in the corridor and drivers of modal choice,
research practical and cost-efficient intermodal alternatives;
provide advice to potential users and suppliers of intermodal transport.
Traditional Promotion
Promote corridor-specific intermodal demonstrators, supporting the actors
involved.
Raise awareness regarding intermodal transport, for example through
information events, presentations at conferences and trade shows, public
relations, or online and print publications.
Improvement of a knowledge base
Capture and communicate stakeholder requirements;
make available market analyses, training material and background information
needed to understand intermodal transport;
facilitate knowledge transfer and best practice information exchange.
Information transparency
Collect and facilitate access to information on the supply services in the
relevant corridors;
seeking co-operation with transport operators, infrastructure providers and
ancillary service providers.
In order to achieve self sustainability and independence of MDC the revenue generating
services will be developed. The revenue generating services will cover:
Consulting
Training
Extended and specific research
Internet enabled applications and solutions
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5. Revenue-generating activities
The overall scope of the MDC will be to offer information, resources, support, products,
services and web applications targeted to players in Multi transport and their needs. The
main objective of the MDC will be to reach self-sustainability during its first years of
operations. This will be achieved through the sales of products and services to the private
target group and through a contribution scheme from stakeholders.
The keys to success for the MDC will be:
a.
b.
c.
d.

Extensive promotion among Bulgarian SMEs

Well balanced business model implementation
Professional and trustworthy MDC Service Delivery Organisation
Creation of the stakeholders Community

The following main products, services and applications have been identified and can be
offered through the MDC:

Consulting
Provide value-added services such as strategic advice to policy makers, route
or service provider comparisons and evaluations for shippers, requirements
and demand potential analyses, drawing on the knowledge base and specific
research activities
Training
Offer introductory lectures, familiarisation workshops or training courses to
users or operators, or broker training services provided by other institutions.
Extended and specific research
Organise and facilitate research activities;
carry out market demand or technology surveys;
conduct feasibility studies.
Internet enabled applications and solutions
Annual subscription services Basic, Medium and Advanced.

6. Partnership
The development of the intermodal transport and logistics - a trend of the transport, which is
as interesting and challenging as it is complex in nature, has the task of providing effective,
integrated solutions for freight transport. The integration of "green" modes of freight transport
into efficient logistics chains is essential for the economic efficiency and long-term
development of the European freight transport, the environmental protection and the
consumers facilitation.
The European Commission specific measures and actions in the field of transport logistics
with view of optimizing the freight transport and prioritizing these measures and actions in the
fight against the climate changes caused by the heavy traffic have still not been applied in
Bulgaria and in the Balkans. It is imperative that a plan for action has to be developed in the
field of transport logistics for Bulgaria which will impose the main development trends of the
European transport logistics taking into account the specific conditions, environment and
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capacities. The aim of the specific measures and actions that will be realized with the Action
Plan should be directed to promote infrastructure technologies and innovative practices, to
improve the cargo management, to support creation of cargo transportation chains, to
facilitate the administrative procedures as well as to improve the quality throughout the entire
logistic chain.
The participation of leading executives from national institutions, experts and professionals
from business, professional organizations and transport institutions is essential for the
formation of well functioning MDC as well as European, regional and national measures and
actions that make the sea transport, the rail transport and the inland waterway more
attractive and competitive in the context of the Co modality.
The partnership is critically important for the development of MDC in Bulgaria. The
partnership has to be established on the base of very clear rules and responsibilities for each
of the partners in order to ensure independentcy of the MDC.
Multimodal transport concern a large area of competences concerning three main
components: infrastructure, information and communication and services. All this assumed
the different character and role of organizations which could be partners at national level. At
the moment well recognized potential partners for MDC at national level are:
Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce
Ministry of Transport
Executive Agency Railway Administration
Executive Agency Maritime Administration
Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises
NC Railway Infrastructure,
NC Industrial Zones
Bulgarian Association of Railway Carriers
Bulgarian Association of Shipbrokers and Agents
Bulgarian Association for Freight Forwarding and Logistics
Bulgarian Ship-owners Association,
Bulgarian Danube Chamber
Bulgarian Association of Regional Development Agencies and Business Centres
This list illustrates organizations which are interested in development
of multimodal
transport and respectively MDC stakeholders for MDC. Furthermore, the complexity of the
tasks of MDC requires close involvement of academic researchers.
The Universities could be associated partners providing support with specific reports and
studies, as well as strategic recommendations. Additional possibility for individual partners
has to be investigated and evaluated in order to allow establishment of partnership whit
individual companies and physical persons.
Establishment of international partnership is crucial important for development of Bulgarian
MDC. The international direct connections will ensure provision of fresh information for future
development and trend of multimodal transport. There are many possibilities and we will
mention part of them without any claims to be detailed in the explanation:

European Commission for Ten-T Policy;

Network of MDC developed under project ADB;
International Union of Combined Road-Rail Transport Companies
REGINS project.
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In order to give examples for best practices in Europe, we will look at a list of some projects:
DIOMIS - Developing infrastructure and operating models for intermodal shift. Agenda
2015 for combined transport in Europe. - www.uic.org/diomis
SuperGreen EU Project: Supporting EU's Freight Transport Logistics Action Plan on
Green Corridors Issues - www.supergreenproject.eu
TIGER EU Project: Transit via Innovative Gateway concepts solving European intermodal Rail needs - www.tigerproject.eu
A Motorway of the Sea (MoS) is a door-to-door intermodal freight transport chain
using a maritime segment with sea-land (rail, road, inland waterway) connections and
interfaces. - www.mos-blackcaspianseas.com.

7. Location of MDC
From another point of view MDC is very close connected with a network of intermodal
terminals. Based on the best practices in Europe, the three scenarios are proposed for the
development of a network of MDC and intermodal terminals in Bulgaria. The scenarios are
defined to support the development of the network in phases. The first scenario involves
development of core network, with a minimum number of terminals, whose primary function
is involvement in regional, European intermodal transport system. The following scenarios
represent the expansion of the core network, first in the corridor, and then to the whole
economic territory of Bulgaria.
Scenario 1: Involves development of four or five bimodal or multimodal terminals. These
terminals would be the places of concentration of all intermodal flows in Bulgaria: Bourgas,
Varna, Rousse and Sofia. The main advantage of this scenario is rationally investment in a
smaller number of locations and concentration on the strong traffic flows and infrastructure.
Lack of scenario is the loss of potential intermodal flows from the other Bulgarian regions and
economic centres.
Scenario 2: This scenario could be called a scenario Corridor. It includes development of
seven to ninth intermodal terminals at corridors (corridors number IV, VII, VII, IX and X) in the
following towns: Bourgas, Varna, Rousse, Vidin, Plovdiv, Sofia, Gorna Oriahovitca. The
advantage of this scenario is the concentration of flows in the terminals located on the
corridors. However, in this scenario there is a possibility of loss of intermodal flows from and
to economic centres that are not included in the corridor

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Initial MDC has to be located in Sofia as a main Business centre in Bulgaria. In the future the
appropriate network of MDC offices can be situated in the regions for providing of wide range
of consulting services on place. Due to the fact that a lot of services are connected with
Internet the most important condition for MDC is to have well established Internet/Intranet
connection and well equipped IT Centre. From other point of view research activities depend
of close collaboration with governmental institutions and universities. In order to minimize
initial investments, a good solution for MDC will be to use existing building and infrastructure
as well as already established cooperation between institutions and universities.

8. Role of transnational MDC for development of multimodal

transport.
An intermodal transport system consists of various elements (as shown in Figure), deriving
from a physical subsystem and a service subsystem. Information and communications
technology facilitates these two subsystems and lies between them, but is not regarded as a
single subsystem per se. The focus in this project is on the physical and service subsystems.
The physical subsystem consists of infrastructure and transport equipment. The
infrastructure consists of nodes and links, and the network composed of these nodes and
links is the physical intermodal transport network. The links are mode-related, e.g. railways,
roads and waterways. The nodes are intermodal terminals, for example, seaports, inland
ports, airports and transfer stations. The transport equipment includes rolling stock (lorries,
trains, ships, barges and planes) and intermodal transport units (containers and pallets).

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The Intermodal Transport System

As suppliers of infrastructure for the physical intermodal transport network, one distinct group
of actors within the system is formed by the rail, terminal and airport operators and, to a
lesser extent, the road providers and owners of waterways.
The actors of the service subsystem form a second group, which includes the set of
companies and organisations that deliver the services (e.g. forwarders, shippers, sea carriers
and road transport companies). They provide the actual transport of goods between the
nodes of the intermodal transport network. They also offer other logistics services, such as
distribution, storage, processing and administration.
In the past, many studies and projects (such as TIRS, REBIS, ESPON-European Spatial
Planning Observation Network, INTERMODA, Aprocot, IQ, IRIS) have assessed the impact
of economic, organisational and infrastructure-related parameters that affect the
development of demand for transport, trade forecasts and transport sector reorganisation in
the countries of the region. The most important of these considerations, relating to intermodal
transport development for serving international traffic issues, may be summarised as follows:
Different levels of economic development in each country;
Varying processes for adopting standards and achieving interoperability in the
transport domain;
Limited available national funds for transport infrastructure project development;
National transport plans often compete with each other, resulting in the availability of
high transport capacity but with an uncertain level of capacity use according to
forecasted transport demand;
The traditional actors of the transport chain change roles and competition profiles;
Ports become major players for achieving intermodality, especially where the
overseas container market is concerned;
New types of synergies are observed, and most probably required, among transport
industry actors;
Private/public co-operation is recognised as indispensable for developing efficient
intermodal chains;
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Transnational agreements are needed in order to develop truly international transport

infrastructures that will accommodate intermodal cargos, and bundling along main
transport corridors;
Nodal points (terminal) development is crucial, but in order to be successful it has to
be integrated and harmonized with regional economic and environmental objectives.

Above mentioned issues can be solved through development of a Transnational MDC

network. The main objective of the Transnational MDC network
is to help in the
development of a framework for an optimal integration of different modes so as to enable an
efficient and cost-effective use of the transport system through seamless, customer-oriented
door-to-door services whilst favouring competition between transport operators.
Implementing a European intermodal transport system requires coordinated development of
transport policy on European, national and regional level. Generally this includes activities in
the following fields:
Integration of infrastructure and transport :
Intensify intermodal design of the trans-European transport networks
Enhance design and functions of intermodal transfer points
Synchronize standards for transport means
Interoperable and interconnected operations
Integration of freight freeways in an intermodal context
Development of common charging and pricing principles
Synchronize competition rules and state aid regimes on an intermodal basis
Mode-independent services and regulations
Synchronization and standardisation of procedures and EDI
Intermodal liability
Research and demonstration
Benchmarking
Intermodal statistics
Together with other policies already proposed by the Commission, the recommended actions
are aimed at eliminating the current barriers to the development of intermodal door-to-door
transport, and thereby promote a greater use of environmentally friendly modes of transport
with spare capacity. By improving the potential of rail and maritime transport and by offering,
where appropriate, effective alternatives to unimodal road journeys, intermodality will help to
overcome congested road networks. Performance improvements in railways, the full
internalisation of external costs and the promotion of intermodality are part of an overall
strategy for sustainable mobility.

9. Functional and organisational synergies with existing Centres

for Intermodal Transport Regional Agencies
The Commission has already launched the review of the TEN-T policy. We asked the
Member States, the Parliament, and all the stakeholders if they would support our vision of a
dual-layer Trans-European Transport Network, with the creation of a multimodal "core
network" of the strategically most important nodes and links within the EU and beyond. This
core network will be complemented by a wide and already existing comprehensive network,
which will reflect national transport planning. Soon we will prepare a proposal for this core
network, which will not only include the main nodes for passengers and freight but will also
be an intelligent, future-oriented network. Innovative information and management systems
will support logistic functions, intermodal integration, efficient, sustainable operations and
traffic management, in order to establish attractive and competitive door-to-door or at least
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terminal-to-terminal transport chains, according to the needs of the users. We will propose
a revised set of TEN-T guidelines, which will give legal form to this vision. These guidelines
will look at network and implementation tools including funding as one package of policy
measures - Mr. Siim Kallas, Vice President of the European Commissions.
The main areas of functional synergy with existing Intermodal Transport Agencies have to
cover:
Include the transport industry actors to the planning process, from the early beginning
and through a bottom-up approach;
Build synergies among TEN Corridors, focusing on the specialisation of transport
chains and
the appropriate development of the logistic services at transport terminals in
accordance with regional development;
Create an efficient and realistic intermodal network in South East Europe by focusing
on modal points operation in the area and improvement of the quality of the transport
and logistics services provision;
Match priorities for the development of intermodal transport nodes with existing and
possible transport chains, based on the transport industry tendencies;
Identify best practices for public-private collaboration schemes for the development of
transport terminals;
Set priorities for the development of regional, national and transnational intermodal
nodes.
One of the well-developed structures for regional structures is the Bulgarian Association of
Regional Development Agencies and Business Centres (BARDA). BARDA is a decentralized
non-government umbrella organisation of independent Regional Development Agencies
(RDAs) and business centres in Bulgaria. Its activities are focused mainly on the
development of the regional economies and the SME sector. BARDA was established in
1997 by 7 RDAs and now has 15 members agencies and BCs, situated in all regions of
Bulgaria. BARDA cooperates with ministries, state agencies, foreign donors, other public and
private organizations on the design and implementation of the regional development policy,
SMEs support and investment attraction. The association members work in accordance with
the strategies for economic development of the regions and participate in regional
development policy making. BARDA activities contribute to the development of the civil
society, innovation and economy of Bulgaria. The main tasks of BARDA are:
Network coordination at regional level (RDAs + other stakeholders)
Development and implementation of the regional policy
Provision and support of the process of regional decentralization
Exchange of good practices, resources, experiences, etc.

BARDA is a:

Partner of the European Association of Regional Development Agencies (EURADA)

Multiplier Point of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) for
Bulgaria
Member of CEI-LEED Local Development Network, managed by OECD LEED Trento
Centre and CEI
Member of the EMBRACE Network

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The close cooperation with BARDA will support contacts of MDC with small and medium
enterprises will facilitate promotion of multimodal transport. Furthermore, this cooperation will
allow the development and implementation of regional strategies for intermodal transport.

10.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The current state of the infrastructure necessary for intermodal transport in Bulgaria is not at
the desired level and quality with international requirements and standards. The main part in
international intermodal shipments is containerized shipments. RO-RO shipments are
relatively few and are mainly in the port of Burgas and Varna. Danube port of Vidin realizes
RO -RO shipments to Passau, Germany, and the line Vidin - Calafat." Ro-Ro terminal at the
port of Rousse East supports two relations Ruse - Reni and Ruse - Giurgiu, which is
currently not in operation due to lack of Bulgarian carrier . RO - RO complex Oriahovo is
realized mainly by auto- transport line "Oriahovo - Beckett ".
The main problems facing the development of intermodal transport in Bulgaria are:
poorly developed network of multimodal terminals
lack of popularity for the benefits of multimodal transport
poor information provision of transportations in general and intermodal transport, in
particular
Taking into consideration these facts Bulgarian MDC cant perform all activities mentioned in
previous paragraphs. In order to achieve better efficiency MDC has to be concentrated in the
following areas:
Promotion - increase awareness of intermodal transport among shippers and
forwarding agents and logistic providers, preparation of brochures promoting
Multimodal Transport (MTT), preparation of website of MDC, conduct newsletter
campaigns, organisation of workshops with target groups and government analysing
problems & bottlenecks, preparing fact-sheets on individual countries (e.g. external
trades, ports, hinterland terminals,..), Establishing and maintaining a database on
MMT services and transport operators
Information - provide shippers with information on the many and varied possibilities of
intermodal transport, especially with regard to intermodal door-to-door transport; setup and maintenance of a database of intermodal transport services; distribute
information on intermodal transport developments and innovations; adoption of
information on intermodal transport and logistics technologies development trends as
well as innovation and best practices in the EU countries.
Consultancy - strategic advice to policy makers, route or service provider
comparisons and evaluations for shippers, requirements and demand potential
analyses, specific feasibility and case studies.
Training - introductory lectures, familiarisation workshops or training courses to users
or operators, or broker training services provided by other institutions.

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