KLAIPĖDA, Lithuania — The director of the Port of Klaipėda is proposing privatization of the port, changing it from a state-run enterprise into a joint stock company.

Eugenijus Gentvilas, Port of Klaipėda director, said the company would be better run and more flexible in private hands.

“In my opinion, it should be changed. The port would be more flexible and it would be easier to compete. When I was mayor I used to say that port management must involve the city more. Now as the director of the port I say the same,” Gentvilas told the Verslo Žinios newspaper.

Gentvilas proposed the idea Tuesday during a meeting with the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists.

The port authority says Gentvilas’ comments reflect only his opinion, not an official proposal.

“This is just his idea and he has just put it out there for consideration,” Geda Marozaitė, port public relations spokeswoman, told Baltic Reports.

Finances could better handled

Gentvilas said if the port transformed into joint-stock company, its borrowing and self-financing policy could be “conducted expeditiously.”

“Profit reflects the real things, the market value … now we have a crisis and can’t earn anything [in taxes], but the government is still taking 16 million litai. Just because it is the property of the state, they come and take 16 million litai,” the port director said.

In his view, if the port status is changed to a joint stock company, its management should remain in state hands.

Before becoming the port director, Gentvilas previously served as a member of both the Lithuanian and European parliaments and the mayor of Klaipėda.