Riga, Latvia, Feb.17
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
A subsidiary of the Azerbaijani airline is constructing a freight logistics terminal in the Riga International Airport for the cargo transshipment from and to Baku, Kaspars Ozoliņs, the state secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Transport said in his interview with Trend.
"The planned freight turnover of the terminal is 6,000 metric tons of cargo per month (100 metric tons of export and 100 metric tons for import per day.)," said the state secretary.
He said that the construction work is underway and it is planned to commission the terminal by January 2016.
Ozoliņs said the construction of the freight terminal in Riga is envisaged in the memorandum on cooperation in the sphere of aviation. The mentioned memorandum was signed during the visit of Latvian communications minister to Baku in January 2014.
The agreement on territory leasing in the Riga airport was signed in December 2013.
The cargo transshipment through the Riga airport can be very beneficial for Azerbaijani companies, according to Latvian state secretary.
"There is a very convenient infrastructure in Latvia for organizing deliveries to the whole Europe," he said. "There are three large ice-free ports and distance between the airports and ports is short."
Emphasizing the existence of a convenient railroad system in Latvia, Ozoliņs said that there is an opportunity to create logistics centers for organizing cargo distribution.
Moreover, he added that port free zones with lower taxes operate in his country and, "People in Latvia fluently speak Russian."
Furthermore, Ozoliņs said that Latvian ports could handle such Azerbaijani export goods as oil and petroleum products, metals and mechanical engineering products, plastic and chemical products, vegetables, fruits, tea and other agricultural products, as well as cotton and textile products.
He added that there is an opportunity to import from Azerbaijan to Riga raw materials and components at relatively lower prices for production of final products in Latvia.
As a result, the final product will have a status of "made in EU" which will allow it to be more popular among consumers in EU, according to Latvia state secretary.
The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Latvia stood at $10.5 million in 2014, according to Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee.
Edited by CN
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