On May 23, within the framework of the annual OECD International Transport Forum (ITF), SJSC Latvijas Dzelzceļš was accepted as a member of Corporate Partnership Board of ITF alongside 30 other companies of transportation, logistics, sectoral industry and high technology. Currently LDz is the only company from the Baltic States operating in this Board.
Edvīns Bērziņš, President of LDz, together with Young Tae Kim, Secretary General of ITF, underlined when signing the accession memorandum: "Participation in the Corporate Partnership Board provides an excellent opportunity to creat contacts not only with the companies of transport industry, but with representatives of other sectors, the operation of which has a significant effect on future development of transport. Especially important today is development of new strategic partnerships, as new logistics solutions are being developed, and in long-term good relations with the neighbouring transport companies is not enough. Especially important are various innovative technological solutions and IT application in development of logistics that we have defined also as the long-term direction for operation of LDz. At the same time we should not forget about security of solutions, and that is one of the most significant challenges in the sector."
He also underlined that ITF and its Corporate Partnership Board is part of OECD organisational network, within which good governance in all levels is especially promoted; thus, invitation to join one of these organisations should be viewed as a high evaluation of corporate governance practice in LDz.
ITF Corporate Partnership Board currently unites approximately 30 companies from various countries across the world; and the task of the Board is to provide the decision-makers of the transportation sector of ITF Member States with a vision for significant regulation of development issues in the sector. During the last years, members of the Board have provided their opinion in such areas as decarbonisation of the transport industry, drone regulation, etc. Currently one of the important issues in the agenda of the Board is development for blockchain solutions and regulation for it, including from the standpoint of security risks. "Effective operation of logistics chains and possibly convenient, technologically handy and customer-oriented solutions are the development goal for the nearest years of LDz group of companies as well; therefore, involvement in providing recommendations for alignment of this area is important to us," said Mr Bērziņš, President of LDz.
As a significant contribution of LDz towards the work of the Corporate Partnership Board Mr Bērziņš considers the extensive experience of LDz and knowledge in cooperation with two partners with different business cultures, technological requirements and infrastructure parameters – European Union and CIS countries or 1,520 mm rail gauge countries. Therefore, LDz can provide a unique insight to partners of either countries regarding combination of current systems, creation of maximum efficiency mutual cooperation model and uniform partnership principles for provision of integrated global solutions for logistics.
SJSC Latvijas Dzelzceļš is manager of public railway infrastructure and the leading company of Latvijas Dzelzceļš group of companies. Group of companies includes six subsidiaries –AS LatRailNet that performs determination of infrastructure price and capacity distribution of railway infrastructure; SIA LDZ CARGO providing railway cargo transportation and international passenger carriage; infrastructure construction and maintenance company SIA LDZ Infrastruktūra; rolling stock repair and maintenance company SIA LDZ Ritošā Sastāva Serviss; security company SIA LDZ Apsardze; as well as the logistics company SIA LDZ Loģistika.