Baltic States – CIS, Belarus, Cargo, China, Containers, Cooperation, Good for Business, Latvia, Railways, Russia

He also emphasized that challenges still remain regarding cooperation with other countries, as well as business partners in the transportation sector.

''We have accepted these challenges and adapted to global changes, as well as attracted transit business investments to Latvia. Our geographic position as a EU country bordering Russia and Belarus make us a natural bridge, connecting east and west, north and south. That is why Latvia, with its well developed transportation infrastructure, three year-round ports, modern logistics and distributions centers is interesting to many in Asia, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Western Europe, Northern Europe and the Black Sea region,'' Augulis said.

He said that taking into account global processes and Latvia's place in the world, it is important to have successful cooperation with China. ''In order to achieve the best result possible and facilitate global economic growth, we must cooperate instead of compete with one another, which is why we must work together to develop this transport corridor between China and Europe,'' he said.

As reported, Latvia's state-owned joint-stock national rail company Latvijas Dzelzcels (LDz) and its subsidiary LDz Cargo Logistika LLC, together with the Russian, Belarus and Kazakhstan rail joint venture OTLK and a Belarusian railway logistics company BTLC, have developed a common tariff for railway cargo transportation from the Chinese border to the Latvian ports of Riga, Ventspils and Liepaja, LDz informed.

In addition, together with the Latvian transit industry companies, LDz has developed a uniform transportation tariff for transport to the Scandinavian countries as well.

This common tariff is the first step to developing a complete uniform offer for the transit corridor from China to Scandinavia via Latvia.

The developed tariff provides for a single fare for transportation of a 40 foot container from the station of Dostyk, the border town of China and Kazakhstan, to Riga Port. The planned duration of transportation is 14 days.

"This is an important agreement that, I hope, will result in productive cooperation. I am pleased that in a relatively short time we have managed to reach an understanding with our partners abroad and in Latvia. Practical preparatory work is currently underway to organize a pilot train from China to Riga to verify our ability to our partners to implement the assumed obligations," emphasized Edvins Berzins, president of LDz.

On July 12, within the scope of the visit of Latvian Transport Minister Uldis Augulis to China, president of LDz Edvins Berzins and the head of China Railways Sheng Guangzu signed a letter of intent on cooperation in developing the train China Railway Express from China to Europe.