Lietuva in brief - 2009-10-14

Oct 14, 2009

Two Chinese companies have registered their interest in competing for port upgrade work at Klaipeda Sea Port, reports LETA. Klaipeda Port Authority's Director of Marketing Arturas Drungilas said that the China Road and Bridge Corporation and the China Communications and Construction Company came to see the port. Plans are to upgrade facilities including digging deeper channels for larger ships and building a floating platform for the export of oil products and the import of liquid natural gas. "You need to build new breakwaters; we will have to dredge, reclaim land from the sea. We have a feasibility study with an environmental impact study that will be done in two years," he said. "We have several short term plans: a new passenger cargo terminal, RoRo facilities, RoRo pax ships, and cruise ships. The value of the project is 50 million euros," Drungilas said.

Whether Seimas approves Algirdas Semeta's candidacy as European Commission member will become clear at the Oct. 15 Seimas session, reports ELTA. Seimas on Oct. 13 started considering his candidature for a new term at the European Commission. Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said "We have heard favorable words about Semeta from EC President Jose Manuel Barroso. I believe that there are all possibilities for Semeta to continue performing the same functions or taking another important economic portfolio." Semeta himself said that he managed to achieve some goals over the few months spent in the European Commission. He said though that he should have paid more attention to the economic stimulus opportunities. "I think that I should have stressed the importance of the economic stimulus more, yet we can use only the EU money for that. We have no possibilities of using fiscal measures," Semeta said.

forgot password?