Riga's flag bearers have yet to impress

  • 2001-07-12
  • Nick Coleman
RIGA - Since the change of leadership at Riga City Council after this March's elections, Mayor Gundars Bojars and one of his two deputies, Sergejs Dolgopolovs, have spent a great deal of time meeting their counterparts abroad.

City Council spokesman Guntars Kukals said such visits had the support of Riga's residents. He cited research published on July 4 by the polling company SKDS showing that 75.9 percent of residents want the council to promote economic cooperation with Russia and other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

"Bojars has been building long-term relations with different people, talking about investment and sharing experience of using European Union financial support programs such as PHARE and SAPARD," said Kukals.

"Greece, for example, has been very successful in getting funding for ferry services, which is a priority for the council."

Bojars, who has already visited Moscow, Luxembourg and Greece, returned last week from a conference of mayors from many Central and Eastern European countries held in Vienna. Dolgopolovs, meanwhile, has just returned from a trip that consisted of three weeks in the Belarusian capital Minsk, followed by three days in Russia's second city St. Petersburg.

But some in Riga's business community have yet to be impressed. Arvids Sipols, co-head of trading at Parex Bank, said he was waiting for the council to prove itself. "The question is how rational these visits are. How much time are they spending abroad, rather than working at home? The City Council needs to be more transparent, particularly in the way tenders are awarded. People need to be able to see how they are being represented."

Solving one of the most serious problems identified by Sipols – the deteriorating state of Riga's Soviet-era housing – was at the top of Dolgopolovs' agenda in Minsk, said his press secretary Anna Kononova.

"The Minsk authorities built 300,000 cubic meters of housing last year and have already built 593,000 cubic meters this year, so they were explaining how they did it, how the planning process works and how the city invests money in local infrastructure."

But Dolgopolovs' efforts were greeted with hesitation by the other deputy mayor, Inese Vaidere, whose right-wing For Fatherland and Freedom Party opposes Dolgopolovs' For Human Rights in a United Latvia Faction because of its association with the Russian-speaking community.

"Maybe Minsk has done something good in the housing sector, but there are a lot of very developed nations you can learn from," said Vaidere.

"I would like to look more to Western cities. I doubt Minsk is the best example. If you can see areas of cooperation that must be appreciated. But we have to evaluate carefully which friendship brings us good things. We can't be partners with all the cities in the world."

On his travels Dolgopolovs also discussed creating cooperation agreements with the authorities in Minsk and St. Petersburg. A similar agreement, which Bojars discussed in Moscow last month, may be signed when Moscow's Mayor Yuri Luzhkov visits Riga for an economic forum of former Soviet countries in October.

"We are talking about economic cooperation, tourism and so on," said Kukals. "These countries are a huge market for Latvian goods and there are many projects to increase transit through Latvia's ports."

In Minsk, Dolgopolovs also discussed progress on the supply of 11 trolleybuses to Riga by a state-owned motor manufacturer. So far, four have been delivered, two are being processed by customs inspectors and five more are on the way.

But Riga's business community, none of whom were asked to participate in the trips, is not easily impressed, commented Juris Kaza, correspondent for Dienas Bizness.

"Business people here still have an arm's length view of politicians. It's fine if the mayors are meeting to share ideas on combating common problems, such as corruption or traffic. But if the purpose is to encourage investment you can talk all you want about how Riga is a good place to do business, but you have to be able to show living examples.

"You have to let Riga's movers and shakers meet people who are interested in bringing their business to Riga, as the prime minister has done on similar trips, otherwise it is a less clearly definable flag-raising exercise."

On one issue it seems the wishes of former Mayor Andris Argalis are not being respected. In a move apparently designed to please Riga's more nationalist voters, Argalis announced during the pre-election period that St. Petersburg would be given a bronze statue of Russian Emperor Peter the Great, which is being restored after spending two decades at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

But a decision has now been made to temporarily place the statue in Riga's Viestures Garden during celebrations of the capital's 800th anniversary in August. No decision on its long-term future has been made, said Kononova.

St. Petersburg, whose authorities had expressed doubts about depriving Riga of the statue, will instead receive a replica. Dolgopolovs inspected the site in St. Petersburg where it will stand, she added.

The statue was dispatched to St. Petersburg in 1915 to be melted down for use in the war effort, but the ship carrying it was sunk en route. It was returned to Riga in pieces in 1934, after Estonian divers recovered it. It then lay abandoned until 1989, when private individuals began its restoration.