During a meeting with Uzbekistan Railways representatives in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on 20 April, members of the management of SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš” and its subsidiaries, “LDZ CARGO” Ltd. and “LDZ LOĢISTIKA” Ltd., discussed opportunities for increasing freight transport volumes between Latvia and Uzbekistan and agreed on developing closer cooperation in repair and modernization of locomotives and wagons and in training of railway specialists.
SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš” Chairmen of the Board Māris Kleinbergs: “SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš” and the entire “Latvijas dzelzceļš” Group is actively working on different solutions to increase freight transport volumes in order to compensate for the decrease in freight traffic over the pasts several years. Taking into consideration the growth of the Uzbek economy and our successful cooperation for many years, we now see an opportunity to continue increasing freight traffic volumes between Latvia and Uzbekistan.”
“LDZ LOĢISTIKA” Ltd. Chairmen of the Board Jūlija Vasiļkova: “We have already developed excellent cooperation with Uzbek customers, therefore, while in Uzbekistan, we have spoken to the existing and prospective new customers. Our aim is to further develop container transport and general cargo transport in covered wagons. By continuing to promote electronic document circulation, we help our customers process invoices faster to make freight transport even more efficient.”
Akmal Kamalov, Deputy Chairman of Uzbekistan Railways Board, acknowledged during the meeting that Uzbekistan had traditionally relied on Latvian ports and had a high opinion of its long-time cooperation with SJSC Latvijas Dzelzceļš. “Not only the price of the service is important to us, but also reliability of our partners. Cooperation with China and other countries in the region has taught us the importance of ensuring circulation of electronic documents, which helps to make operations much faster and more efficient,” emphasized Akmal Kamalov.
During the meeting, SJSC “Latvijas dzelzceļš” representatives offered their Uzbek colleagues to use the opportunities offered by LDZ Training Centre for training of railway specialists, to further develop mutual cooperation also in employee training.
The two companies’ representatives also agreed to cooperate in repair and modernization of wagons and locomotives in order to address the current problems with availability of spare parts, which, together with the international sanctions against Russia, may hamper rolling stock modernization and repair projects.