(L\u00fcbeck\/Hamburg\/Riga) The highlight of the delegation’s trip was the Latvian-German Port Forum, which took place on July 11 at the invitation of Latvian Transport Minister Kaspars Bri\u0161kens. This format was established for the first time last year and takes place in close cooperation with the L\u00fcbeck Port Company (LHG), Port Hamburg Marketing (HHM), and the Latvian Ministry of Transport, supported by the Latvian ports of Riga, Ventspils, and Liep\u0101ja.<\/p>\n
“Closer cooperation with German ports is an important building block for the realignment of the Latvian transport and logistics sector. Our ports have a centuries-old collaboration that provides a solid foundation for further development,” said Transport Minister Kaspars Bri\u0161kens. “I am pleased that there is mutual interest in expanding cooperation and that the economy is continuing the dialogue after the Port Days in Hamburg in May with our meeting in Riga.”<\/p>\n
Bri\u0161kens outlined five priorities that should contribute to the realignment of the Latvian transport and logistics sector away from Russian freight: jointly developed cargo flows and investments, increased Latvian exports and expansion of inland traffic, promoting industrial development in the ports and their special economic zones, as well as accelerated projects for renewable energies \u2013 and not least the creation of new military mobility on NATO’s eastern flank.<\/p>\n
LHG Managing Director Sebastian J\u00fcrgens emphasized in his keynote: “Our traffic with Latvia has developed excellently. This is particularly gratifying for the LHG, as traffic with Russia has collapsed since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.” Thus, the weekly departures between L\u00fcbeck and the Latvian port of Liep\u0101ja have doubled from three to six between 2016 and today.<\/p>\n
Latvia has developed into a central logistics hub of the Baltic Sea within a few years: “The share of logistics in the overall economic performance in Latvia is around ten percent; in the EU, this figure is only about five percent,” explained J\u00fcrgens. This shows the great importance of Latvia for the port location L\u00fcbeck and thus also for the LHG.<\/p>\n
Senator Pia Steinr\u00fccke sees “great potential in deepening cooperation, which both sides would like to utilize. For me, it is important that both sides learn from each other. I found it very impressive that the Latvian economy is so interested and present.” This shows the significance of this cooperation for the country and how important this collaboration is for the people here. Her conclusion: “We need to come even closer together and send a strong signal to strengthen the partnership with Latvia. We will now discuss this in L\u00fcbeck.”<\/p>\n
For Marina Basso Michael, Regional Director Europe at HHM, the event served “as an excellent platform to strengthen the existing relationships between Latvian and German players in the port industry and to explore new business opportunities arising from the dynamic German-Latvian trade partnership.”<\/p>\n
With the visit to Riga, L\u00fcbeck and Hamburg continued the port forum, which was initiated by the LHG for the first time last year in L\u00fcbeck with the participation of the then Latvian President Egils Levits. In the “Memorandum of Cooperation” signed by the Liep\u0101ja Special Economic Zone Authority, the LHG, and the Hanseatic City of L\u00fcbeck, the partners commit to further expanding the connections between L\u00fcbeck and Latvia while also making them more ecologically sustainable. To this end, the L\u00fcbeck partners are working on the development of a “Green Shipping Corridor.” This is associated with a variety of concretely defined individual projects.<\/p>\n
Photo: \u00a9 Port of Riga \/ Caption:<\/strong> At the Port of Riga, here on the icebreaker “Varma,” the German delegation from L\u00fcbeck and Hamburg met with business partners and representatives of the Latvian ports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A delegation of nearly 30 members, led by Pia Steinr\u00fccke, Senator for Economic Affairs and Social Affairs of the Hanseatic City of L\u00fcbeck, and Niels Wiecker, [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1557,1561,1559],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-forwarding-logistics","category-regions","category-shipping-ports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n