Italy plans to present a project for inbound and outbound terminals for the Ukrainian economy in the country’s northeast at a conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction in late April in Rome. The Italian Minister of Economic Development, Adolfo Urso, announced this at a roundtable meeting of the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions in Venice, as reported by Ukrainian news agency Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Minister Urso, the Italian government plans to construct an intermodal transportation highway along the International Transport Corridor No. 5 route (Venice – Trieste/Copper – Ljubljana – Maribor – Budapest – Uzhgorod – Lviv – Kyiv).
It will allow Ukrainian exports, particularly of steel products, to resume.
“In fact, due to military operations, the Black Sea is closed [to Ukraine-ed.] In this case [unblocking Ukrainian exports-ed.], the only option is to transport goods to the Adriatic via existing railways and highways,” elaborated Adolfo Urso.
In addition, the project will establish a logistics platform. It will connect Ukraine by land to Verona’s Quadrante Europa intermodal port. Furthermore, from there, it will connect Ukraine to the seaports of northeastern Italy, particularly Trieste, and Venice.
“By doing so, we will provide Kyiv with a new and secure access to the sea. It is given the difficulties in using Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea,” emphasized the minister.
According to the minister, the logistics corridor between Verona’s Quadrante Europa intermodal port and the Goronda logistics site in the Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine on the border with Slovakia will be completed by the time the conference begins in Rome. It is at the end of April 2023.
Adolfo Urso added that Italy would present the project for the Italy-Ukraine logistics corridor at the Verona Logistics Fair on 10 March.
It is important to note that Verona’s Quadrante Europa interport is the largest transport hub in Italy, located at the intersection of the Turin-Trieste and Modena-Innsbruck (Austria) highways, as well as the Verona-Innsbruck and Milan-Venice railway lines.
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