English
The Freeport of Riga Authority has begun work on creation of the port development plan for the next decade. “It will be a comprehensive plan highlighting planned development trends for the Port of Riga over the next ten years, starting from infrastructure improvement and development of new logistics routes, to sustainable environmental policy,” emphasizes Freeport of Riga CEO Ansis Zeltins (Ansis Zeltiņš).
It is planned to involve not only domestic experts but also internationally recognized specialists in the preparing the development plan of the Freeport of Riga.
“The Port of Rotterdam has considerable experience working with various port development projects around the world. For creation of the development plan it is also planned to use their expertise and knowledge”, says Ansis Zeltins.
The Port of Rotterdam is one of the largest European ports, with a total cargo turnover of over 460 million tons per year. “In terms of cargo conjuncture, the ports of Riga and Rotterdam have similar characteristics, while the models of both port management are also alike”, said the Freeport of Riga CEO.
Rotterdam is also included on the list of the world’s largest container ports. Every year over 12 million container units (TEU) are transhipped at the Port of Rotterdam. In recent years, the volume of containerized cargo has also been steadily rising in the Port of Riga.
Ansis Zeltins says: “The growing volume of containers transhipped and the favourable location in the centre of the Baltic region should be used to develop the Port of Riga as the largest containerized cargo transit centre in the Baltic region, and the experience of the Port of Rotterdam will be useful here. The new development plan of the Freeport of Riga will be created with the aim of regaining the leading position among the Baltic ports and becoming a future container handling centre or a so-called “hub” port in the Baltic Sea.”
The new Port of Riga development plan is to be completed by the end of the year.
