ASTANA - Top Latvian officials made a major visit to Kazakhstan Oct. 7 - 9 in hopes of bringing in new business to the Baltic country and reviving its transit industry.
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga and Deputy Prime Minister Ainars Slesers, traveling with a large delegation of business leaders, met with Kazakh ministers and government officials in an effort to boost cooperation in oil and cargo transit, airline routes, and investment relations between the two countries.
Riga Mayor Gundars Bojars, who is also chairman of the Riga Free Port, went so far as to offer Astana Mayor Dzhaksibekov Adilbek help in building a terminal at the port. Kazakhi officials responded by saying they would visit Latvia in the next 10 days to negotiate the issue further.
"It is not yet clear as to what kind of cargo the terminal could be used for, that depends on the offer by Kazakhstan. The precise location of the terminal is also not known, as this depends on the type of cargo to be handled and necessary depth," said a Bojars' spokesperson.
Slesers and the Kazakh deputy energy minister said they would cooperate in the oil transit business. The two agreed to call for trilateral talks with Russia on launching the transit of Kazakh oil to Latvian ports, including Ventspils.
The deputy prime minister told the Baltic News Service that the Kazakhis promised to support Latvia in its effort to renew oil deliveries via pipeline, which Russia cut off at the beginning of 2003.
Janis Blazevics, chairman of the Ventbunkers oil terminal, was also present at the talks.
Slesers, who is also transport minister, suggested to Kazakh officials that they use the service of Riga International Airport, following the recent decision to lower the airport's tariffs.
In other deals to emerge from the trip, Latvijas Dzelzcels (Latvian Railway) said it had reached an agreement with Estonian, Russian, Kazakh and Uzbek railway companies on unified freight rates for containers sent from the Baltic states to Kazakhstan.
Latvian Railway said this cargo route had enormous prospects as it could be extended to include the existing route to Iran, Afghanistan and China.
The container train Baltika-Tranzits, which travels to Kazakhstan and was organized on the company's initiative, departs from Latvia's ports and later affixes containers from Estonia and Lithuania.
At present only one train runs on the route, but with the sizable demand at least two container trains could cover it, Latvian Railway officials said. In the last seven months of 2003 the train made 31 trips, carrying 197 containers.
Itera Latvija, a gas distribution company, said it met a number of Kazakh ministerial officials to discuss participation in international oil and gas drilling tenders announced by the Kazakh government. Company President Juris Savickis announced that the costs of such projects would range from $100 million to $500 million, meaning that Itera Latvija could only take part with a partner, including Latvia's natural gas monopoly, Latvijas Gaze.
For his part, Latvijas Gaze President Adrians Davis said he met with representatives of Russia's gas giant Gazprom, the largest supplier of natural gas to Latvia, though he would not elaborate on details.
The Liepajas Osta LM stevedore announced that it planned to start servicing grain transits with Tsesna, a Kazakh grain processing company. Board Chairman Peteris Iesalnieks, who was part of the delegation, said that grain exports from Kazakhstan could begin in the nearest future and would be delivered to the Liepaja port by rail.
The Latvian stevedore can store up to 50,000 tons of grain but the exact amount of Kazakh exports is not known yet as these are state-regulated.
Latvia officials have this year especially increased diplomatic and business activity with Asian and Central Asian regions. President Vike-Freiberga's office has even referred to this as an effort to revive the Silk Road between the world's most populous region and Eastern Europe.
