TV/Video

Municipality - Liepāja representative office in Riga

Liepāja representative office in Riga

Address: Torņa iela 4, block 2a - room 201
Riga, LV-1050
Phone: +371 6 7503392
E-mail: lpr@dome.liepaja.lv

IIn order to increase Liepāja’s influence in the politics, economy and culture of Latvia, the City of Liepāja reestablished its Representative Office in Rīga on 12 November 1998.

The main task of the Office’s staff is to participate in the development of those bills and resolutions of the Saeima and the national government, which will have an impact on Liepāja and its region. The Representative Office helps to improve not only the awareness in Liepāja about the plans and decisions of the national government, but also awareness amongst the national authorities about Liepāja. It coordinates cooperation between Liepāja and Rīga within business, public and municipal affairs and may provide both general and specific information on Liepāja to anyone interested.

Liepāja Representative Office in Rīga offers information about Liepāja and its:

  • economy – Liepāja Special Economic Zone (SEZ), investment opportunities and city development;
  • municipality – its work, priorities, decisions, budget;
  • companies – their profiles, investment opportunities and possibilities for co-operation;
  • social and economic activities;
  • entertainment possibilities;
  • tourism routes;
  • artists and their works;
  • music and musicians.

You may have the following types of meetings arranged in the Liepāja Representative Office in Rīga:

  • with members of the Saeima, elected from Liepāja;
  • with the Liepāja City Council members and officials;
  • with management and specialists of the Liepāja Special Economic Zone Authority;
  • with entrepreneurs from Liepāja;
  • with representatives of cultural, educational and sport institutions;
  • with students from Liepāja studying in Rīga;
  • with other people that are benevolent towards Liepāja.

The Liepāja Representative Office in Rīga will:

  • provide information to every person interested in Liepāja;
  • meet every person willing to co-operate with Liepāja;
  • organize meetings between officials from Liepāja and every person proposing concrete co-operation projects with Liepāja;
  • welcome every person who was born or has spent a part of their life in Liepāja.

Exhibitions of Arts

For several years now the Liepāja Representative Office in Rīga also organizes exhibitions of artists from Liepāja with the purpose of promoting artistic and cultural activities in Liepāja. Cooperation with artists has been started at the end of 1998 with the exhibition of paintings by Benita Bitāne, arranged with the assistance of Raimonds Gabaliņš, Head of the Liepāja League of Painters. Now it is a regular tradition to host various exhibitions of artists from Liepāja.

Co-operation partners

Meetings with embassy representatives, politicians and state officials take place at the Liepāja Representative Office in Rīga on a regular basic. Monthly student meetings, press conferences and other activities are also arranged. Our cooperation partners, amongst others, are departments of the Liepāja City Council and the  Liepaja Special Economic Zone Authority. Only through cooperation with all of them can we facilitate the development and promotion of Liepāja!

History

In 1922 the Liepāja City Board took a decision to delegate Nikolajs Sudmals, member of the Liepāja Stock Exchange Committee as “the representative of the city in the capital”. Stock exchange committee could be compared to the present Chamber of Commerce and Industry together with the Port Authority and the Special Economic Zone Authority.

During his time in the office Nikolajs Sudmals, former first lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Army, pilot and a participant of the World War I, arranged several commercial exhibitions at the Rīga Trade Guild as well as several exhibits of Liepāja’s industrial products. In 1925-1926 he personally participated in the product exhibits of manufacturers from the Liepāja’s Karosta district in Rīga.

The Liepāja City Representative Office in Riga was an official institution in Rīga. It was located on Stabu iela 2 (near the present Krišjāņa Valdemāra iela). Apartment No. 4 in the same building was also the residence of Nikolajs Sudmals. He owned a cafe in the centre of the Riga named “Mona”.

The Liepāja City Representative Office in Rāga operated until 1934. It facilitated the adoption of the “Law on the Liepāja Free Harbor” by the Saeima in 1927-1929 and lobbied other issues important for Liepāja. Nikolajs Sudmals was seeking to create a lobby among the members of the Saeima so that it would become possible to implement a decision on establishing the Army Economic Shop in Liepāja.

After the coup of Kārlis Ulmanis on 15 May 1934 and the appointment of Ēvalds Rimbenieks as the Mayor of Liepāja, there was no more need for the Representative Office as a lobbying instrument since Ēvalds Rimbenieks was the Minister of Finance in Ulmanis’s government, meaning he stood well with the latter.

Based on the materials compiled by Gunārs Silakaktiņš.