Freeport Riga Authority signed a memorandum of cooperation with the national railway company of Uzbekistan – State joint-stock railway company “O’zbekiston temir yo’llari” (Uzbekistan Railways).
The aim of the memorandum is to strengthen and develop mutual cooperation and informational support between the port of Riga and Uzbekistan, so that it is possible to promote the more efficient use of the transport and transit potential.
By signing the memorandum, the parties aim to strengthen mutual cooperation to provide favorable and competitive conditions for import, export and transit cargo flows between Latvia and Uzbekistan and in the opposite direction, as well as the exchange of information on cargo flows and supporting the development of international transport and logistics projects of both countries.
“The Freeport of Riga Authority work is targeted at strengthening economic cooperation with partners and developing cooperation in the field of information exchange, transit, logistics and goods transportation. We highly value our Uzbekistani partners and hope for active and mutually beneficial cooperation in the near future,” said Mārtiņš Ziemanis, deputy CEO of the Freeport of Riga.
Meanwhile, the parties agreed to provide the necessary support for the preparation, organisation and holding of joint informational events.
The memorandum enables the Freeport of Riga to publish information about the Riga port’s operation, services and their costs, terms of cooperation and related potential benefits on the official website of Uzbekistan Railways, informing cargo owners and potential customers on the Uzbek side.
Until now, the cooperation between the two parties in terms of cargo received and shipped has been changing and influenced mainly by geopolitical conditions. In 2021, containers were shipped from the port of Riga to Uzbekistan and included agricultural and food products, including frozen products, various equipment, machines and electrical devices, metal products, pharmaceutical products, and chemical goods.
Containerised cargo received from Uzbekistan included plastic products, fruit and nuts, seeds, vegetables, and cotton.
At the beginning of the year, when the situation in the world markets changed as a result of the war in Ukraine and new logistics routes were sought for various goods, the turnover of goods with Uzbekistan at the port of Riga increased rapidly.
These trends indicate a remarkable potential for future cooperation between the two parties.
