Liepaja - welcome to the “City of Change”

Liepaja, the 3rd largest city in Latvia, has set extensive goals in industry, tourism, infrastructure, education and other spheres in its ongoing improvement and development of the town which has led to Liepaja being called the “City of Change”.

City promenade in Liepaja

Briefly about the city:

- Population: ~86 000
- Total area: 60.4 km2
- Special Economic Zone status allowing recovering 50% (65% for SMEs) of the investments through Corporate Income and Real Estate Tax rebates
- The main economic sectors are metal working, textile and other manufacturing as well as trade and repairs, transport, storage, communications, and construction.

General information

The city of Liepaja is located on the west coast of Latvia. As the closest port to Scandinavia and Western Europe, Liepaja provides a solid base to connect with the rest of Europe. The port itself is connected to the national railway system and major roads, ensuring speedy and effective cargo exchange with Russia and other CIS markets. Liepaja is one of the few ice free ports on the East coast of the Baltic Sea, which ensures regular traffic in almost any weather condition. It is the third largest port in Latvia and is able to serve a wide variety of cargo.

Liepaja is also a major manufacturing centre possessing Latvia’s largest enterprises in two of the top three export industries (Liepajas Metalurgs (http://www.metalurgs.lv/) in metal working and Lauma (http://www.lauma.lv/) in textile). Furthermore, the city’s manufacturing productivity exceeds that of any other Latvian city by 20%. To make Liepaja even more attractive to business, a Special Economic Zone has been established, guaranteeing one of the most favourable tax environments in the Baltic Sea region at least until 2017.

If you are considering expanding your business or wish to re-locate to a stable, cost effective city, Liepaja is the place for you. Its location as a transport hub provides an advantageous manufacturing position with direct access to the EU’s 500 million strong market, the Russian Federation and emerging markets east of the EU border.

Logistics Services

Transport and logistics services are largely centred on the port of Liepaja itself and continue to grow in line with the port’s freight throughput. The logistics cluster in Liepaja’s Special Economic Zone consists of a number of forwarding agencies, shipping agencies, stevedores and custom brokers, each specialising in a certain type of goods. Value added logistics operations such as re-packing, blending or technical surveying play an increasing role in the local economy. The railway and road transport play equal roles in connecting the port to the rest of Latvia, the Baltic States and countries beyond the EU border. The transport infrastructure is in sufficiently good condition to serve both the domestic and international transportation needs, and is scheduled to receive significant investment from national and EU funds to gradually upgrade it to EU levels.

Liepaja Port

Industrial parks

For investors requiring swift establishment, simple start-up and co-operation with other tenants, there are several industrial park projects providing rental options. These include the privately owned “Transit & Industrial” park with indoor and outdoor facilities, and “Liepaja Business Centre” owned and operated by a Danish investor. In addition there are municipality owned Greenfield and Brownfield locations available in the city.

Human resources

People are the most important economic asset and highly skilled labour with a positive work ethic has always been a product of Liepaja. The local educational establishments in Liepaja provide a complete education cycle for professional careers in manufacturing and logistics, from high school to vocational diploma or university degree. In Liepaja there are three vocational technical schools, a technical university branch, Liepaja University, business and law schools and several private colleges. Besides that entrepreneurs are welcome to work with the State Employment Agency, which offers various opportunities to re-qualify employees and might be able to help you in the recruitment process. A widespread knowledge of Russian also gives Latvians an advantage when dealing with CIS and Russia.

Business travel

Liepaja International Airport (http://www.liepaja-airport.lv/) operates regular flights in route Liepaja–Riga-Liepaja as well as regular international flights to Hamburg (Germany) and Copenhagen (Denmark). In addition to the regular flights, Liepaja international airport serves charter, business and general aviation flights. The growth of Liepaja airport also plays a significant role for the city’s development of tourism and the local business environment, as many business people are happy to take this opportunity to reduce their travel times.

Liepaja International Airport

Support

In order to facilitate rapid and targeted development, the City Council has set three development directions:

• development of the manufacturing sector;
• development of city infrastructure;
• development of human resources.

The Liepaja City Council Development Department works directly with local and foreign entrepreneurs and investors to provide all the necessary information and guidelines to set up a company in Liepaja. It is our policy to make everyone coming to our city feel welcome, whether they are tourists or business people. Liepaja is open to all new and innovative ideas and we are ready to assist everyone who visits the “City of Change”.

For more information and support, please contact:

Mr Martins Abols
Deputy Head Development Department
Development Department
Liepaja City Council
Phone: +371 634 04803
Fax: +371 634 04806
martins.abols@dome.liepaja.lv
http://www.liepaja.lv/