The quadripartite Letter of Intent

On 11 July, as part of the Days of German-Latvian Ports, a quadripartite Letter of Intent was signed by Pia Steinrücke, the Lübeck Senator for Economic and Social Affairs, Gunārs Ansiņš, Mayor of the City of Liepaja, Sebastian Jürgens, Managing Director (Spokesman), Lübecker Hafen and Uldis Hmieļevskis, CEO of the Liepaja Special Economic Zone. 

The signing parties declare that they will intensify future relations by strengthening their cooperation with the following objectives:

• Aiming for a substantial reduction of CO2-emissions. To meet this target, a fast transition to low-/zero-carbon fuels and technologies is necessary, not only for the ports’ own operations and energy consumption, but more significantly regarding the vessels, trucks and trains calling at the ports.
• Developing and providing the referring port terminal infra- and supra-structure according to the demand of the corridor’s cargo flow and passenger traffic in order to accommodate larger vessels and thus resulting in a reduction of CO2-emissions per loading unit.

"The Letter of Intent with the city and the Port of Lübeck is yet another step for Liepaja on its way to become an increasingly greener and more environmentally friendly city, which goes hand in hand with the European Green Deal goals to create sustainable industry and transport. The sea route connecting Liepaja and Lübeck has historically been an important waterway, which we are now committed to develop also as an environmentally friendly shipping corridor to ensure supply chains throughout Europe," says the Liepaja City Council Chairman Gunārs Ansiņš.

The signatories of the Letter of Intent acknowledged that one of the most important tasks is further reconstruction of Berth No 46 in the Port of Liepaja to ensure safe berthing and ferry operations for larger ferries and to increase competitiveness of the route Liepaja-Travemünde against other competitors as well as to provide proper infrastructure for the development of other routes in the future is a task to be done.

The Liepaja SEZ CEO Uldis Hmieļevskis added that the previous and also the future cooperation with the Travemünde Port, which is part of the famous and historic Hanseatic Town of Lübeck, allows for setting new goals:  "Shipments by sea are greener and environmentally friendlier. We are pleased that the ferry line has been operating successfully with positive dynamics, however, we still see many trucks on the road. This Letter of Intent is to a large extent on our mutual cooperation in future to increase the amount of cargoes on the ferry-line and to accommodate larger ships in future. To achieve such goals, we need to proceed with major reconstruction of the Ferry Berth No 46 in the Port of Liepaja, specifically taking into consideration, that in recent years, the amount of cargoes transported on the ferry line has already increased significantly. 

"The operation of the ferry terminal is a good example on how, by investing in the infrastructure development, both public and private funds can increase the cargo turnover. No less important is the already established synergy of the port and industrial manufacturing companies, as well as the close cooperation between business, the Liepāja SEZ Authority, the state and local government institutions", admitted the Liepaja SEZ CEO Uldis Hmieļevskis.