Discussion of prospects for the development of the EU transport and logistics project to Central and South Asia in Vilnius

Discussion of prospects for the development of the EU transport and logistics project to Central and South Asia in Vilnius

On the last day of September in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, there was held a working meeting of the manager of the Baltic-Black Sea Economic Forum projects, implemented with the participation of Lithuania, Vitalius Besakirskas with the coordinator of the European Union's strategy on transport policy in the Baltic Sea, EWTCA President, Algirdas Sakalis (pictured left first).

Issues related to the proposal from the seaport of Antwerp as the coordinator of the international ePICenter project, initiated by the European Union, addressed to the First Deputy Chairman of the Baltic-Black Sea Economic Forum, Volodymyr Makukh were discussed.

Given that the subject of this proposal is cooperation with the international team of the Baltic-Black Sea Economic Forum, aimed at the implementation of the European Union-initiated ePICenter project, significant responsibilities for the implementation of which are on Algirdas Sakalis, representatives of the project participants were involved (in particular, representative of the Canada-Lithuania Trade House Paulus Hirchus (pictured right) and one of the main coordinators of the Baltic-Black Sea Economic Forum for the Development of Transport and Logistics Partnership, a leading expert in this field Virgis Jakshtis (pictured in the center).

As Vitalius Besakirskas noted:

«These were the first mutual consultations aimed at:

•  firstly, to find out the general goal set by the ePICenter project, the expected results and the expected effect related to the optimization of freight flows, increase of cargo turnover, digitalization of interactions between partners, reduction of environmental impact;
•  secondly, it was very important for us to identify specific markers of cooperation aimed at optimizing and ensuring more efficient operation of transport and logistics routes from the Baltic coast, where the foundation of development is our partner pair, consisting of the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda and the Polish seaport Gdynia, to the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, where effective cooperation is demonstrated by our partners from Kazakhstan - the modern seaport of Kuryk and Turkmenistan - JSC "Turkmen Mill Logistics", which effectively ensures the movement of goods through multimodal corridors through the international seaport of Turkmenbashi.

In addition to the active development of the partnership within our basic European triangle Lithuania-Poland-Ukraine and other European partners, a very important aspect for us was to take into account the interests of sustainable development of partners from Central and South Asia where, in our opinion, one of the strongest foundations of this Euro-Asian partnerships should be considered by our partners from Uzbekistan».