Around 30 shipyards signed an agreement on establishment of a Baltic region shipbuilding cluster on Friday, November 28th within the framework of a shipbuilding conference in Svetlogorsk, Maritime News of Russia reports.
The signatories were predominantly from Russia, but included representatives from Spain and Italy. Companies from Finland and Sweden also expressed interest in joining.
The conference entitled “Shipbuilding. New approach to human capital assets” was organized by Baltic Shipyard “Yantar” OJSC.
The foreign partners will be able to enter the cluster only through joint ventures with companies registered in the region as Russian legal entities, as explained by Yantar Deputy Director General Sergei Posledov.
Activities on project implementation are expected to commence immediately so as to have the cluster ready for operation by 2017.
The decision comes as Russian government wants to boost its shipbuilding capacities so as to cut production times for warships and commercial vessels and improve labour policy by hiring new people and raising wages.
World Maritime News Staff