China, EU – Baltic States, Lithuania, Railways, Transport

“They want to take a look at those projects in Latvia, Estonia and also want to come here. I can’t imagine what they are thinking of or what they want,” Stasys Dailydka, CEO of the Lithuanian railway company Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways), told BNS.

He guessed that the Chinese company might be considering a possibility to submit bids in tenders for various contracts.

“I can only guess that they may be willing to take part in contract tenders… Maybe they plan to submit some bids,” he said.

Vidmantas Gudas, a spokesman for Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai, said that representatives of the Chinese company would come to Lithuania on January 5–11.

The web portal lrytas.lt has reported citing sources that the Chinese company has approached Lithuania’s officials with proposals of its services and investment while building Rail Baltica. According to sources, the Chinese would like to invest in the project or take it over and were ready to send in the total workforce required for the project.

Ricardas Slapsys, an aide to the Lithuanian transport minister, described the Chinese investment in Rail Baltica as “theoretical considerations”. The authorities concerned had not been approached with any specific proposals on the issue, he added.

With approximately 5,700 train stations, China Railway Corporation sells more than 4 million train tickets a day.