Ports of Kaliningrad and Klaipeda to become partners

The ports of Kaliningrad and Klaipeda want to operate as partners and not rivals on the international cargo transportation market. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, this is the main objective of the joint Russian-Lithuanian project 2K, which was discussed at the third conference of cargo owners in the resort of Svetlogorsk yesterday.

This joint project was created on the initiative of the Russian and Lithuanian Transport Ministers on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement of long-term cooperation between the Kaliningrad Region and the regions of neighbouring Lithuania. The conference brings together cargo owners and other participants in the cargo transportation process interested in allowing these Baltic ports to operate at full capacity. In particular, they are seeking to optimise the spread of work between the two ports. The two ports have been cooperating for two years and this has raised the level of traffic at both ports. In the first quarter of 2003, for example, 3 million tonnes of cargo passed through the Kaliningrad ports, a year-on-year increase of 33%. 5.5 million tonnes of cargo passed through the Klaipeda port over the same period, which represented a year-on-year increase of 16%.