Diplomats and top managers of leading companies from Russia, Finland, China, Norway and South Korea will meet in Murmansk on Tuesday for the sixth Arctic Logistics conference to highlight the prospects of Northern Sea Route exploration, TASS said.

"The conference will gather over 120 participants representing transportation and logistics companies, logistic service providers and industry representatives, and also research institutes, education institutions, and legislative and executive officials," TASS said.

Thirty-six business meetings between top managers are to take place on the sidelines of the conference. The participants will discuss the social and economic development prospects of the Arctic and Russian Arctic regions, ways of making the Northern Sea Route more competitive, and the specifics of building transportation and logistics infrastructure in the Arctic, including on the shelf. The agenda also includes joint international efforts in emergencies prevention and organizing rescue operations in the Arctic.

The main speakers at the conference will be senior managers and experts of such Russian companies as Atomflot, Rosmorport, Gazpromneft-Sakhalin, Gazflot, and Sovcomflot, and representatives of research organizations.

The Murmansk Region government told TASS earlier that an increasing number of Russian companies and other countries were expressing an interest in using the Northern Sea Route. The region traditionally assigns importance to international cooperation by developing close ties with neighboring Norway, Finland and Sweden, and also sees vast potential in establishing and consolidating ties with Asian partners.