Latviski
On the 6th of September, 2011 ambassadors and embassy representatives from 20 countries arrived at the Freeport of Riga to participate in the international ambassador conference „Foreign Ambassadors Summit 2011 – Presentation”. The number of participants confirms that there is a great interest about the activity strategy of the Freeport of Riga and the proposed opportunities.
The summit was opened with a speech by Leonīds Loginovs, the Chief Executive Officer of the Freeport of Riga, who expressed his satisfaction on foreign ambassador interest about the processes in the Port of Riga. Nils Ušakovs, the Board Chairman of Riga City Council, also confirmed his support to the Freeport of Riga, as it promotes the development of Riga.
The presentation prepared by the Freeport of Riga was presented by Edgars Sūna, the Marketing Department Director, who informed the present persons on the existing situation and the possible perspective development tendencies. The three main values, which could interest foreign entrepreneurs to invest in the Freeport of Riga, are : 1) An ideal geographical location for cargo transportation between Russian/CIS and European countries; 2) 445 ha of available development territory, adapted for the establishment of factories and logistics centres; 3) Tax incentives guaranteed by the status of the Freeport of Riga.
Whilst discussing future development projects for the port, Viesturs Silenieks, the Deputy Board Chairman of the Freeport of Riga, emphasized that they are vitally important to the Port of Riga, in order to maintain its competitiveness within the soaring market of the Baltic Sea. Overall the amount of Freeport and private investment projects during the period between the years 2010 and 2020 will reach 1,1 billion Euros. The major projects of the Freeport of Riga were the Reconstruction of Access Channel for Ship Entrance and the Development of Krievu sala. Both of these projects together will permit larger ships to enter the Port of Riga, allow new deepwater halts to be constructed and enable to prepare the necessary infrastructure – access roads, railroad branches, provision of communications and power resources – for the development of new terminals. At the same time, central city territories on the right coast of Daugava will be liberated from the economic activity of the port.
Upon being asked about the attitudes of ambassadors, Viesturs Silenieks commented: „I personally heard a positive assessment from the Netherland, Russian and Estonian embassy representatives. In any case, a step towards promoting incoming investments to the Port of Riga has been made. In my opinion, this idea could be further developed with various activities that would promote a tighter cooperation between The Freeport of Riga and foreign business and trade representatives in Latvia. There are multiple ways of delivering and receiving information that is the basis of any business and development, we just have to work on this.”
The Port of Riga is the largest port in Latvia and it has the biggest potential for development in comparison to all other ports in the Baltic region. Last year the total volume of cargo turnover for all Freeport of Riga enterprises exceeded 30 million tons. During the first seven months of this year the amount of transhipped cargoes has increased by 16%, in comparison to the corresponding period last year and this gives reason to believe that when closing up the year, there will be a significant cargo growth and new records will be achieved.
