Freight Forwarders Forum: topics, summaries, insights

So friends, this year’s Freight Forwarders Forum has taken place. The event was long-awaited, so the joy from it could not be dampened by any difficult circumstances that we face every day. It was the first such action during a full-scale war, so it was no wonder that we were looking forward to it. The forum was held under such a key topic as “Transport and logistics industry: Recovery. Potential. Development”.

Who spoke and what did they talk about?

The event was opened by the president of AMEU Viktor Berestenko. Acting Andrii Donchenko, head of the Service for the Restoration and Development of Infrastructure in the Odesa Region, spoke about the transformation of the highway service in the region and paid attention to other infrastructure issues.

Adviser on regional competitiveness of the USAID “Competitive Economy of Ukraine” program, Arseniy Polozhiy, spoke about the details of this program and revealed the topic of grant support for export alliances. It was very interesting and dynamic, given the extent to which the topic of export prospects unites the professional community of forwarders, logisticians and business managers in this field.

Valeria Antoniou, who heads “Diya.Business” in Odesa, shared the details of this project and what opportunities it opens up for entrepreneurs, and what intermediate results are already available. Much attention was paid to the “Financier” program, dedicated to the topic of financial tools for business development, as well as to the “Brave” program for women entrepreneurs.

Artem Vyvdych, a national expert on the restoration of territorial communities of Ukraine of the All-Ukrainian Association of OTG and an expert of the Swiss-Ukrainian DECIDE project, spoke about the prospects for the restoration and development of the Odesa region. He touched on the issue of projects in the context of international support and made a detailed review of them. So the audience could learn about interesting opportunities for themselves that can be used.

Tetyana Berlym, deputy director of the Agency for Regional Development of the Odesa region, like her colleagues, paid attention to the topic of recovery and priorities in this direction.

Anna Petrukhnenko, who is the director of N’UNIT LLC, spoke about intermodal terminals and their interaction. General Director of MAERSK Ukraine, Roman Koloyanov, touched on the topic of work in the new conditions of the MAERSK company. The head of the sales and marketing department of DB Schenker Ukraine Kateryna Boboshko, in her turn, shared the experience of the DB SCHENKER company. Vyacheslav Voronyi, the Deputy Chairman of the USPA, spoke in more detail about the functioning of the port industry, and Ivan Niyakyi, an expert in sea transportation, completed the review of this topic.

What conclusions and insights were reached?

Despite the fact that each of the experts revealed the topic through their own experience, a lot of common things were said. The forum was a great opportunity to “check the clocks”, to discuss problems, developments and prospects for the near and distant future.

It would seem that it was about difficult questions, challenges and ways to overcome difficulties. But the atmosphere of optimism, support within the community, drive and belief in victory united everyone at this event. Therefore, we believe that with new impressions and ideas, everyone will continue to work in their place in order to support the transport and logistics industry of Ukraine and develop it, adding all the troubles.