VILNIUS, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's state-controlled railway company Lithuanian Railways announced on Wednesday its first long-term growth strategy, revealing investment program of 7 billion euros by 2030.
The company's 2030 growth strategy sets the goal to increase the annual revenues from 448 million euros in 2017 to 725 million euros during the upcoming 12 years. The company's EBITDA (profit, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) is set to almost double from 155 million euros in 2017 to 300 million euros by 2030.
The company said the investment program is unprecedented in the country's history.
"Our goal is to become the logistics and mobility leaders in the Central and Eastern Europe by 2030," said Mantas Bartuska, chief executive of Lithuanian Railways.
Lithuanian Railways plans to increase the volume of freight transportation by 30 percent, up to 70 million tons by 2030. The railway company ties its freight growth plans with the Chinese market.
"We can reach that by knowing the client better, connecting European and Chinese markets," Egidijus Lazauskas, head of Lithuanian Railways Freight Transportation Directorate, told business news website vz.lt.
The company also plans to double the number of passengers up to 8 million by 2030.
The company said in its strategy it expects to reach "the biggest breakthrough" with the implementation of Rail Baltica project, a rail transport infrastructure project aimed at integrating Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and indirectly Finland by 2026.
