On July 14, 2021, the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a conference "Exploitation of innovative transport and logistics opportunities within the city. Moscow-Rotterdam".
The main purpose of the meeting, the moderator of the Conference, the Vice-President of the MCCI, Mr. Suren Vardanyan, named the exchange of experience between the two cities - Moscow and Rotterdam - in solving the conundrums of the transportation systems, the logistics involved, while taking into account the goals of sustainable development.
The Russian Trade Representative in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Mr. Andrey Makarov, said that Russia and the Netherlands have historically been close trade partners. "In terms of trade, the Netherlands is the third trade partner of Russia after China and Germany, and the first destination for Russian goods to Europe," said Mr. Makarov. “When it comes to trade in services - primarily logistics and transportation, being high-tech services - the Netherlands is Russia's ninth transportation partner.”
Transportation services between the two countries accounted for one hundred and ninety-one million dollars last year. At the same time, according to Mr. Makarov, Moscow ranks first in exports to the Netherlands among all of the Russian regions. Rotterdam has a special place among European cities, thanks to its geographical, transportation and logistics’ potential. According to him, Moscow and Rotterdam are the leading cities in transportation logistics and “smart” mobility. "All this pertains to similar aspects of the economies of Moscow and Rotterdam in general and in such sectors as transport innovation logistics in particular."
The representative of the Municipality of Rotterdam Martin Guit outlined the key vectors of development of the city's transportation network. Since 2010, the city is focused on increasing the mobility of various population groups, the development of public spaces, increasing its green areas. As statistics show, in recent years, the number of residents using public transport is not increasing, while the number of pedestrians and cyclists is growing. "Rotterdam loves cars, but they cause a lot of air emissions," said Mr. Guit.
That is why it was decided to reduce the speed of cars in the city to 30 km per hour, the transition to electric cars is encouraged: there are serious investments in the construction of infrastructure to facilitate the development of electric transport. "We set a goal to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030," said a representative of the Dutch side. The speaker called the development of public transport on the river as one more direction of the city's transport system development. The topic was also supported by Mr. Roy van den Berg (Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies) who spoke about the development of "green mobility in Rotterdam.”
Mr. Nikita Ryazantsev, the Director of Information Technology of the “MosTransProject”, spoke about the development of unmanned transport in Moscow, including the creation of a digital road model. The accuracy of the model is 2 mm and allows to significantly reduce the digital capacity requirement of the drone: it does not need to process the entire array of information on board, the main part of it will be contained in a digital map. The use of drones, according to the speaker, significantly reduces traffic fatalities. "I am sure that we will achieve zero road deaths," said the expert. Mr. Ryazantsev spoke about a successfully operating, in Moscow, in the Central District, where the traffic situation is always difficult, an unmanned vehicle that records parking violations.
Ms. Maria Andrianova, the Director for Strategic Development of the accelerator "Transportation Innovations of Moscow", spoke about being engaged in selection and the launching of early stage startup projects developing solutions in the field of transportation. Despite the fact that the system was created only last October, more than 500 projects have already been considered, and 57 pilot projects have been implemented. "We are a bridge between technical teams, enthusiasts, labs and transportation systems,” Ms. Andrianova said. She presented a number of promising areas of focus: traffic control projects, scanning and recognition of objects and faces, crosswalk control system, etc.
Gijsbert van Marrewijk, a representative of the Dutch company Flying Fish Water Mobility, spoke about the development of a water taxi system in Rotterdam. He said that a water taxi appeared in the city in 2014. Now the Watertaxi Rotterdam has 20 boats, which in the near future can carry up to half a million people annually. If the speed of cars in Rotterdam is now set at 30 km/h, then the water taxi moves at a speed of 60 km/h, which can seriously save time when moving around the city. Now the boats are running on diesel, but options are being developed to switch to electricity and also to hydrogen-electric boats. However, the current solutions are somewhat time consuming. "The river is becoming not a barrier, but a means of transportation. More and more people want to live near the river," said Mr. Marreviijk.
Representatives of a number of Russian and Dutch companies, working in the field of transportation and logistics, spoke at the conference. The co-founder and commercial director of “Hardt Hyperloop”, Mr. Mars Geuze, presented the project "Cargo hyperloop network" (vacuum train) and spoke about the plans for its implementation in Rotterdam. Mr. Wouter Berris, Commercial Director of “Mobility Invest Group”, spoke about the company's strategy to help cities and firms in the Netherlands and in other countries to encourage people to use more sustainable and active mobility options. “Uvl Robotics”s CEO, Mr. Eugene Grankin, spoke about how smart drones and Artificial - Based Intelligene solutions can be useful for the logistics industry.
Mr. Sergey Sayfudinov, the Project Manager of “H2-Energy” (Skolkovo’s resident), presented an innovative technology of safe mobile storage of hydrogen and other liquefied gases in heavy-duty quartz capillaries. Ms. Kristina Zarubina, the Executive Director of the private technopark “Kalibr”, said that the technopark has had a testing ground for drones since 2016. "We employ not only our tenants here, but also student teams and research laboratories involved in this problem," Ms. Zarubina said. The Technical Director of “Elektrotransportnye Tekhnologii, LLC” (a resident of “Kalibr” technopark) presented the experience of implementing an unmanned electric truck at the logistics center.
Summarizing the results of the conference, Mr. Vardanyan noted that Moscow welcomes all entrepreneurs, who offer joint projects. He invited participants to the next meeting, which will be devoted to the work of technology parks in different cities and regions, as well as their cooperation. "We want to reduce the cost of sharing opinions and projects", Vardanyan said.