EU – Baltic States, Forum, Latvia, Port, Railways, Transport

Photo: sam.gov.lv

On January 22-25, Ozolins visited India and attended the international trade fair Transport Logistic India to which the Latvian transport companies had brought a joint stand.

During a conference on the sidelines of the trade fair, Ozolins spoke about Latvia's priorities and goals in transit and logistics. Latvia will seek to become the most competitive port in the region in the traditional freight segments, to boost container transportation, to focus on port industrialization and to create new services with value added.

"Despite the large distance between Latvia and India, we see great opportunities for transport cooperation between India as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and Latvia as a key transport and logistics hub in the Eurasian transport corridors," Ozolins said.

He said that Latvia's advantages included not only a perfect geographical position but also advanced road, rail and port infrastructure and experience in organization of container trains.

Edvins Berzins, the head of the Latvian state-owned railway company Latvijas Dzelzcels, also spoke at the conference about the opportunities for transport cooperation between Latvia and India.

In addition, the Latvian delegation had several bilateral meetings with the Indian business representatives from Seahorse Group, JBS Cargo India, Indian Port Rail Corporation and the Federation of Freight Forwarders' Associations in India.

On January 25, the EU Chamber of Commerce in India held an interactive seminar in which the Latvian delegation headed by the Transport Ministry state secretary and comprising representatives of Latvijas Dzelzcels and the ports of Riga and Ventspils presented Latvia's services that can be used for distribution of Indian products in Scandinavia, North Europe, Russia, the CIS countries and Central Asia.