Klaipėda port should diversify in view of Lukashenko’s threats, economist says
Lithuania’s Klaipėda port should reduce its reliance on Belarusian cargo, an economist argues, an issue brought into sharp relief by Alexander Lukashenko’s threats to divert business from Lithuania.
Žygimantas Mauricas of Luminor bank believes Lukashenko’s threats should act as an impulse for the port to reconsider its future.
“One should not bet all investment money on one card [Belarus] and perhaps that’s a good impulse for the port of Klaipeda to reconsider its future and ways to ensure its competitiveness,” Mauricas told BNS.
The Belarusian leader threatened to divert cargoes from Klaipėda in response to Lithuania’s active support of the opposition in Belarus. On Monday, the Baltic states published a list of people, including Lukashenko, who will be subject to national sanctions.
“While developing our infrastructure, both port and railway infrastructure, we need to take into account political instability in such countries. I believe we should diversify that activity and not to rely that much on the East-to-West flow, as we see that the geopolitical situation is becoming more complicated,” Mauricas said.
Competition is fierce in the Baltic Sea region, he added, since both Russia and Poland are also investing heavily into infrastructures of their Baltic ports.
Therefore, Mauricas says, Klaipėda should think about other ways to step up its competitiveness.
“The LNG terminal is a good example, as it has evolved into all other side activities. Lithuania also achieved quite a lot with the container distribution centre. I believe that projects of that scale are more promising and safer than reliance on the East-West [transportation],” Mauricas said.
Still, it would be impossible for Belarus to divert all of its cargoes from Klaipėda, let alone in a short period of time, he believes.
“The question is what part [of cargoes] will be diverted and at what pace,” he said.
Lukashenko expressed hope on Tuesday to agree with Russia on the diversion of the transit of Belarusian cargoes from the Baltic states to Russian ports.
Lukashenko claimed earlier that Belarusian cargoes generate as much as 30 percent of Lithuania’s budget revenue, but Aleksandr Izgorodin, an economist from SME Finance, says such statements are clearly false, since almost 70 percent of the Lithuanian budget’s revenue comes from consumption taxes – VAT and excise duties.
“Lithuania’s economy is fairly big and there are many large companies, not only the port of Klaipėda, and it definitely does not account for 30 percent of all budget revenue,” Izgorodin told BNS.
A study into the port’s impact on the city of Klaipėda and the country, conducted by Ernst
The post
