On July 2, the board at the Port of Riga voted in Riga Vice Mayor Ainars Slesers (Latvia's First Party/Latvia's Way) as the board's chairman, LETA was informed by board member Olafs Pulks (New Era).
Two board members voted against Slesers, whilst six members voted for him. With this, previous Vice Mayor Andris Argalis (People's Party) loses his position as the port's chairman of the board.
Pulks reported that the vote was in two rounds. First nominated as chairman was Viesturs Silenieks(Union of Greens and Farmers), but he only garnered three votes out of eight. Slesers was nominated in the second round, and received six affirmative. Pulks and Edmunds Krastins (People's Party) voted against him.
The new board at the Port of Riga is as follows: Slesers, Silenieks, Krastins, Pulks, Andris Ameriks(Latvia's First Party/Latvia's Way), Mihails Kameneckis (Harmony Center), Vadims Jerosenko(Harmony Center) and Janis Straume (For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK).
Slesers' press secretary Girts Dripe told LETA that as the port's new chief, Slesers will keep his campaign vows to improve the port's operations.
In the next four years, Slesers intends to increase cargo turnover from 30 million to 50 million tons a year, and create several thousand new jobs.
"Aggressive work is necessary to reach these goals, competition with ports in neighboring countries, snatching away their cargoes, and directing them through Riga," said Dripe, voicing Slesers' viewpoint.
To ensure this, Slesers promises investment and new terminals.