On November 29, the Board of Liepaja SEZ reviewed and accepted the application of Jānis Lapiņš, Chief Executive Officer of the Liepaja Special Economic Zone, for termination of employment due to personal reasons. According to the press release of Liepaja Special Economic Zone Authority, the Board of the Liepaja SEZ appointed Uldis Hmieļevskis, Deputy CEO, as Acting Manager. In order to comply with the principles of good governance, the Board of the Liepaja SEZ decided to select a manager through a competition.
Jānis Lapiņš has been managing the Liepaja SEZ Authority since 2016, and during this time various challenges had to be overcome, for example, the economic development of the city after the repeated insolvency of the largest company KVV Liepajas Metalurgs required a new strategy to promote economic activity in changing transit and geopolitics. A significant challenge since 2020 has been to reduce the impact of the Covid19 pandemic on the operation of the Liepaja SEZ and the Port of Liepaja. A very important development project implemented by the Liepaja SEZ Authority is the consolidation of the territory of the former steel plant “Liepajas Metalurgs” in order to return this territory to economic circulation.
In total, significant infrastructure projects have been implemented from 2016 to 2021 - deepened the fairway up to 14.5 m, construction of the land and railway access roads, improved navigation safety in the Karosta Canal, improved infrastructure required for fishermen and construction of a new quality marina. Thanks to the implemented infrastructure development projects, the port entrepreneurs wereable to plan their development plans and investments, which resulted in an increase in cargo turnover, providing new cargo flows and new cargo logistics directions. For example, the road access road development project implemented in 2020, together with the investments made by the port operators, ensures the stable operation of the Stena Line ferry operations and the RO-RO cargo flow with increasing turnover.