OREANDA-NEWS. April 04, 2011. Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis held a meeting with the management of GEFCO, the international logistics group to discuss the development of GEFCO in the Baltic region and plans of the newly established joint-venture Eurasian MultiModal Alliance (EMMA) regarding the offer of multimodal transport solutions from Europe to Central Asia.

GEFCO Director for Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia Christian Zbylut mentioned that the GEFCO management considers that Riga may serve as a gate to Russia and the Central Asia region and, therefore, GEFCO and the railway operator SRR founded the European multimodal alliance to provide multimodal transport solutions for delivery of cargoes from Europe through Riga to Central Asia. The representatives of the company emphasized that the cargo flow will be provided in both directions – to Russia and the CIS and from Central Asia to Western Europe.

During the discussion, also another important GEFCO project was mentioned related to the cargo flows to the new plant of Peugeot Citroen to be built in Kaluga region of Russia. The GEFCO management mentioned that in case of successful development of this project, the volume of containers handled in the Latvian ports could grow by a quarter.

Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis appreciated the development plans of the GEFCO group in the Baltic region and mentioned that Latvia continues to develop the port and railroad infrastructure, as well as infrastructure of other forms of transport, thereby promoting the investment attraction in the area of logistics. The Prime Minister and the representatives of the company also discussed the issues relating to economic cooperation between Latvia and Russia, emphasizing the significance of the Intergovernmental Agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation in the logistics process to Russia and Central Asia.

President of the GEFCO group Yves Fargues informed that GEFCO has been successfully operating in Latvia since 2008 and it is demonstrated by stable annual increase in financial indicators. Since the establishment of the subsidiary GEFCO Baltic in Latvia the turnover has reached EUR 18 million in the course of three years and shows the trend of further rapid development also in the coming years.

The meeting was also attended by President of the GEFCO group Yves Fargues, GEFCO Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Christian Zbylut and GEFCO Baltic Director William le Clere.

GEFCO was founded in 1949. It is operating in the area of logistics, warehouse and storage management, Gefbox, marine transportation, air transportation, car supply, as well as in the area of customs services and transactions. The GEFCO group is among 10 largest European logistics companies and with 2.7 million cars transported in 2010, one of the world’s leading vehicle logistics companies. The turnover of the group in 2010 amounted to EUR 3.4 billion. It employs around 10 000 employees in subsidiaries in 29 countries worldwide. 100% of the group’s equity is owned by the French company PSA (Peugeot Citroen).