OREANDA-NEWS. June 03, 2009. Latvia's President Valdis Zatlers visited the Riga Freeport today to meet with its board chairman, Andris Argalis, its director, Leonids Loginovs, and its head of strategic planning and project management, Vladimirs Makarovs. The President’s main goal was to discuss the role of the port in helping to improve Latvia’s economic situation.

First President Zatlers was told about the Freeport, which takes up fully 20% of the territory of Riga and is an important provider of jobs to local residents. He learned about the port’s history and strategic plans, as well as about the strategic location of the port, which supports cargo delivery to countries in Europe, North and South America, as well as the Far East.

President Zatlers asked about the transport of non-military materiel from the United States via the Riga Freeport to Afghanistan, adding that during his recent visit to America, US government officials spoke highly about this process. The port’s representatives said that the first deliveries to Afghanistan have already been completed successfully. The President and the port representatives agreed that the port must become a leading transit facility for non-military cargoes from other NATO member states in the Baltic Sea.

Focusing on problems, President Zatlers called for a complex approach to the safety of foreign sailors and tourists at entertainment locations in Latvia, the reduction in the level of bureaucracy in the development of the Freeport, and the transport of non-military cargoes to Afghanistan. Each of these issues, said the President, affects the others, and taken together, they have an effect on the Freeport as an important driving force in the Latvian economy.

At the conclusion of his visit, President Zatlers was given a boat tour to learn more about what the port does. He also visited the captains who work at the port.