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"The railways are ready to create additional opportunities to attract customers," says Oleg Belozerov

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Oleg Belozerov, President of Russian Railways, spoke at the plenary session of the conference "Back to Growth. Strategy for Russia", which was held today at the International Investment Forum "Sochi-2015".

"The development of rail infrastructure is a stimulus for economic development in itself. As an example, the modernisation of railways in Russia's Eastern region - upgrading and expanding the Baikal-Amur Main Line (BAM) and the Trans-Siberian Railway - has resulted in the additional transportation of 66 million tons of freight, 40,000 new jobs and the involvement of 19 sectors in the economy," said Oleg Belozerov.

At the present moment, Russian Railways is implementing a number of major infrastructure projects, including the modernisation of BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway, the development of approaches to the ports of the North-West and the South of Russia, the reconstruction of the Moscow transport hub and the design of the Moscow - Kazan high-speed line.

With regard to the development of Russian Railways and the railway industry, Oleg Belozerov named three key areas: reducing internal costs, increasing energy efficiency and attracting innovative technologies to the industry, as well as increased customer focus.

"We believe that we must fight for the customer. Together with our partners, we are ready to create opportunities for us to obtain an additional cargo base and for our colleagues to have, amongst other things, cheaper rates," - said Oleg Belozerov.

It is not just a question of freight traffic, however, but also of increasing the customer focuse of the passenger complex.

In 2015-2016, the Company will continue its efforts to increase internal efficiency, reduce costs and improve labour productivity, which increased by nearly 5% during first 9 months of 2015.