Representatives of the Ghent Seaport (Belgium) in the period from 8 to 11 October, 2013 visited St. Petersburg.

As a part of the planned program of the visit the North-West Basin Branch organized a business meeting of representatives of Russian business with the Belgian delegation, which included the CEO of the Port of Ghent Daan Schalck, Consulate General of Belgium in St. Petersburg employees, as well as representatives of the Belgian dredging, stevedoring, agency, industry and other companies.

Opening the joint Russian - Belgian meeting, the Director of the North-West Basin Branch Sergei Pylin welcomed all the participants and wished them success work. During the meeting, the Russian participants showed presentation films about the North-West Basin Branch of the enterprise and the Bronka newly built cargo area of the Big Port of St. Petersburg, and the Belgian colleagues acquainted attendees with the work of the Ghent Seaport. Presentations were made by the captain of Big Port of St. Petersburg Peter Parinov, executive director of the Association of Sea Commercial Ports Serik Zhusopov, vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of St. Petersburg Vladimir Prokopyev and Russian trade representative in Belgium and Luxembourg Georgy Surokov.

After the official part a series of individual meetings was held between Russian companies and representatives of the mission. In particular, a discussion of plans for joint work of Russian and Belgian experts to implement the signed in April, 2013 Memorandum of Understanding between the Ghent Seaport and the FSUE "Rosmorport" was held.

The program of the Ghent Seaport representatives visit also included a visit to the Moskva icebreaker, on the board of which the deputy director of the North-West Basin Branch on Maritime Safety Andrei Balashov briefed the guests with the experience of the organization and ensure the implementation by the branch of the icebreaking support to the Russian seaports in the eastern part of Finland Bay during the winter navigation, and the examination of the Big Port of St. Petersburg water area was taken.

Representatives of the Ghent Seaport during the second day of the visit visited the Seaport of Ust-Luga and the North-West Basin Branch Ust-Luga Department. Guests from Belgium were shown a presentation of the seaport and its existing and newly built marine terminals. At the invitation of the operators of marine terminals, they were able to directly visit some of them, as well as explore the entire awter area of the Seaport of Ust-Luga.