Construction, Cooperation, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Latvia, Railways, Transport
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Saturday, 27.04.2024, 03:23
Rail Baltica Global Forum 2017, a two-day international event devoted to the Rail Baltica project takes place in Riga
The Rail
Baltica Global Forum 2017 is the key international Rail Baltica event of this year
on Rail Baltica’s economic potential, procurement regulation and organization,
as well as facilitation of suppliers' networking.
The first
day of the Forum will be devoted to discussing the potential of Rail Baltica’s
infrastructure becoming a catalyst for a new economic corridor. The Rail
Baltica Global Project’s[1] Cost – Benefit Analysis for the Baltic countries
will be presented for the first time. In addition, the event will explore
business and passenger interest in not only the Rail Baltica project, but also
other similar projects of such scale in Europe. High officials and opinion
leaders, as well as industry representatives from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Finland, the EU Commission and Parliament will participate. The second
day of the Forum, the Industry Suppliers’ Day, on April 25 will be devoted to
the procurement topic with the participation of almost 200 businesses from 18
countries from across the globe.
More than
15 speakers from across Europe will gather on the First Day of the Forum to
bring together the best ideas, practices and solutions for further
implementation of the Rail Baltica Global Project.
The
participation at the First Day of the Rail Baltica Global Forum has been
confirmed by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia Māris Kučinskis, Lithuanian Minister of Transport and
Communications Rokas Masiulis, the
Minister of Economics and Communications of the Republic of Estonia Kadri Simson, the Minister of
Transportation of the Republic of Latvia Uldis
Augulis and the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Infrastructure
and Construction of the Republic of Poland Andrzej
Bittel.
Baiba Rubesa, CEO and Chairperson of the Management Board
of RB Rail AS, will present her
vision on Rail Baltica – a unique, complex and large-scale trans-national
infrastructure project forming a new economic corridor.
Strategic
and tactical issues regarding the implementation of the “Project of the
Century” will be addressed not only from the perspective of national and
regional level, but also from the European Union perspective – Catherine Trautmann, European
coordinator for the North Sea-Baltic TEN-T Core Network Corridor, and Herald Ruijters, Director of
Investment, Innovative and Sustainable Transport, DG MOVE, EU Commission.
Emile Quinet, associate member of Ecole des Ponts-Paris
Tech, will present the impact of transport infrastructure on regional economic
development and connectivity, while Nauris
Kļava, director of the Management Consultations Department of Ernst & Young Baltic Ltd., will
present the Cost-Benefit Analysis of Rail Baltica for the first time.
Various
logistics experts will explore the freight business opportunities that Rail
Baltica will bring to the Baltics, Finland and Poland. The topic will be
covered by Jorma Härkönen, director
of LIMOWA Logistics Center Claster (Finland), Normunds Krūmiņš, chairman of the board of the Latvian Logistics
Association (Latvia) and Jakub Kapturzak,
deputy director at the Department of Railway Transport of the Ministry of
Infrastructure and Construction of the Republic of Poland.
The
necessary focus on the future projections for passenger mobility in the Baltics
will be given by Dr. Raimonds Aronietis,
a policy analyst at the International Transport Forum at the OECD while Emils Rode, senior expert at the Live
Baltic Campus project, will present the topic of urbanisation of knowledge
economy in the Baltic region.
The event
will also cover a variety of topics on the potential for regional connectivity
and secondary economic benefits offered by a fast conventional railway. The
experience of France will be presented by Dominique
Deau, railway expert, former development director of NExTEO SNCF Reseau and
SNCF Mobilites.
he topic of Rail Baltica’s urban impacts and improved city planning in a
connected region will be covered by Oskars
Redbergs, architect, educator and curator, PhD candidate of
Brandenburgische Technische Universität. Additionally, the topic of high speed
rail infrastructure as a platform for digitalization and innovation,
recommendations for Rail Baltica will be covered by Philippe Citroën, UNIFE Director General.
RB Rail AS is a joint venture between the three Baltic
States established in October 2014. Holding equal shares in “RB Rail AS” are
SIA Eiropas dzelzceļa līnijas in
Latvia, UAB Rail Baltica statyba in
Lithuania and OU Rail Baltic Estonia
in Estonia.
RB Rail AS is the central coordinator for the Rail
Baltica project. The project involves the construction of a high speed rail
line infrastructure from Tallinn to the Lithuanian/Polish border. Rail Baltica
will be an electrified public use rail line, an environmentally friendly and
modern form of transportation.