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Visit of transporters from Central Asian countries to Lithuania

2023 06 19


June 12-17 A large delegation from five Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and
 Turkmenistan - visited Latvia and Lithuania - Klaipėda,
 Kaunas and Vilnius. More than fifty participants from the private and public sector arrived - representatives of the
 ministries of transport, carriers, transport and logistics centers, transport and logistics companies engaged in international and multimodal transportation.
 
The event was supported and partially funded by the United
 States Agency for International Development (USAID). The latter, together with the transporters' union of Kazakhstan KAZLOGISTICS and the international organization TRACECA, in cooperation with the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists (LPK), the Lithuanian National Association of Road Carriers LINAVA and UAB "Centrinės Azijos Projektai" organized the visit of this business mission to Lithuania.
 
The main goal of the event was to explore and discuss the possibilities and development of cargo transportation between the Central Asian countries and Lithuania, which since 2009 is an observer in the TRACECA intergovernmental commission. As part of the business mission, visits were made to Klaipėda State Seaport, Klaipėda Free Economic Zone, Kaunas Intermodal Terminal, as well as the logistics center Girteka Logistics.
 

The speakers, including representatives from government agencies of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, as well as TRACECA, the Transport and Logistics Partnership for Central Asia (TLP) and USAID Trade in Central Asia, KAZLOGISTICS, the Kazakhstan Transport Workers Union, shared their experience and vision in the field of transport .
 
The participants of the meeting enjoyed the presentations of the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists, the Lithuanian National Association of Road Carriers LINAVA, the Lithuanian National Association of Forwarders and Logists LINEKA, the companies "LTG Cargo", "Bunasta", and other participants.
 
Tautginas Sankauskas, the president of the association LINEKA, emphasized the causes and consequences of the current situation in the international forwarding market, and presented the perspective, obstacles and advantages of market development opportunities.
 
In his speech, the General Secretary of PS IGC TRACECA emphasized that TRACECA routes allow cargo to be transported both by road and rail. In his speech, the Secretary General also shared  with the mission participants the main features of road-sea and rail-sea freight routes between Lithuania and Central Asian countries, focusing on transportation time and cost.
 
General Secretary of PS IGC TRACECA Mr. A. Assavbayev also noted the main areas of TRACECA activity and shared the preliminary results of the trial cargo transportation with semi-trailers, carried out from May 25 to June 15, on the route Lithuania - Poland - Slovakia - Hungary - Romania - Bulgaria - Black Sea - Georgia - Azerbaijan - Caspian Sea - Kazakhstan with detailed route description, indicating travel time and transport costs.
 
During the mission, the Secretary General presented a letter of gratitude to Mr. Povilas Varasimavičiis, the founder of LLP Transport-Logistic Nika Group, UAB Šturvalas, which is a member of the association LINEKA, for organizing and actively participating in the first test transportation of cargo by semi-trailer along the TRACECA corridor.
 
At the end of the session, the participants of the event had the opportunity to participate in B2B meetings in order to establish contacts and expand communication with delegates from Central Asia and Lithuanian entrepreneurs.