Hopes to attract Japanese investment in transport and communications

Lithuania can offer Japan access to its integrated transport and logistics system and intermodal terminal services and invite the major economic power to participate in Klaipeda seaport development and Rail Baltica projects and in the deployment of 5G networks in Lithuania and across the region, according to the ministry.

Transport and Communications Minister Jaroslav Narkevic discussed these investment opportunities with a delegation of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation on Wednesday.

"We have a well-developed infrastructure and can offer favorable terms and conditions and a favorable investment environment to our international partners," the minister said in a press release.

"We will seek to attract Japanese container lines which would help develop the Klaipeda port as a container distribution hub in the Baltic Sea," he added.

Lithuania needs to find strategic partners before it can consider building an outer port in Klaipeda, according to Narkevic.

The ministry notes that with the Rail Baltica European-gauge railway project gaining speed, the state railway company Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways) is carrying out a number of public procurement tendering procedures that are open to foreign companies.

The ministry says it is in the process of drafting Lithuania's 5G development guidelines together with mobile operators and public authorities, and Japanese companies' experience in implementing projects of this scale would help the country to accelerate the creation of a fully functional 5G communication system.