On May 10, a working meeting was held in the city of Mariampol devoted to the implementation of joint Russian-Lithuanian production projects. Our region was represented at the talks by the Director General of the Kaliningrad Region Development Corporation Vladimir Zarudny. These negotiations were organized with the support of the Trade Representation of Russia in Lithuania and its head Boris Shentsis.
In his opening remarks, he noted the increase in trade turnover between the countries, the great interest of Lithuanian companies and investment funds in the Kaliningrad region, its opportunities for the output of Lithuanian producers to the markets of the neighboring state and the tax preferences that arose in connection with changes in the legislation in the Special Economic Zone of the westernmost region of Russia.
According to the director general of the Development Corporation Vladimir Zarudny, the meeting was held at a high level and became another stage in the development of cross-border economic cooperation. "During the work in Mariampol, the issues of intensification of non-resource exports to Lithuania, intensification of work on certification of agricultural products of Kaliningrad producers, including canned fish and the release of similar products to European markets were discussed. A lot of attention was paid to the localization of Lithuanian woodworking projects in the Kaliningrad region based on imported raw materials, as well as the readiness of the infrastructure of the Khrabrovo and Chernyakhovsk industrial parks", Vladimir Zarudny explained.
During this working meeting, a series of negotiations with the Lithuanian business community was held, as well as the issues of participation of the region's companies in major specialized exhibitions held in Lithuania and other Baltic countries.
Let's note that according to the results of the last year, according to the analytical department of the Russian Export Center, our country has become Lithuania's main import partner. Mixed fertilizers ($ 59 million in 2017), pneumatic tires ($ 13.8 million), synthetic propylene and rubber ($ 16 million each), as well as wood chipboard and veneer (16 million dollars)were among the main non-primary export goods exported to Russia by Lithuania. Non-raw export from Kaliningrad to Lithuania amounted to $ 43 million last year. The westernmost Russian region sells mainly timber ($ 10.3 million), electricity (8.4 million rubles) and fats (6,2 million rubles) to the Baltic republic. In the opposite direction there are plastic, cardboard and paper ($ 15 million) and sugar ($ 4.5 million).