Education and Science, Forum, Latvia, Port, Transport

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The winning team has provided proposals in regards of the Freeport of Riga and yacht industry development. This autumn the schoolchildren and students’ creative idea competition “The Port for the City” was run for the sixth time.

“This year, the students had to involve a team- leader, and this requirement has been justified – the works, presented by the students, were of significantly better quality, all worthy of the finals, that is why our discussion on award allocation was rather long. Besides, we are particularly pleased to announce that our competition is also expanding geographically, this year we received works not only from Riga schools, but also from other Latvian cities, that are far away from the capital,” says Mr. Ivars Jakovels, the Freeport of Riga Board Member, the competition “The Port for the City” jury Chairman.

The winners of the student creative project competition “The Port for the City” this year are Karlis Jonas (Riga Hanzas Secondary School) and Anna Elina Viola (Riga French Lyceum). The team has presented creative ideas related to yacht industry development supported by the Freeport. The second prize went to Davis Freidenfelds and Loreta Lukina (Riga Secondary School No.25). The team has provided innovative ideas aimed at the Freeport of Riga image creation applying modern technologies. The third prize was won by the united team of Nadine Endija Laze (Riga State Gymnasium No.1) and Darta Mendzina (Riga State Gymnasium No.2), which presented creative ideas in regards of the Freeport of Riga image.

Ms. Kristine Berzina, the lecturer of the Latvian University Economics and Management Faculty International Economics and Business chair, said that she would be very glad to see the competition participants among her students. The member of the jury highly appreciated the students' creative ideas and their courage to choose non-traditional trends of development.

On the other hand, the experienced juror Mr. Modris Ozolins, Riga Technical University, International Programs Division Manager, highly evaluated the students’ courage to use research methods in order to justify their conclusion. Particularly, he welcomed the students' research, analysis and evaluation capacity, as well as their ability to convince the jury members.

The competition was held in two stages. During the first stage the students had to submit their papers on various themes, related to the port, and at the final stage the team competition took place – the authors of the best projects had to present their ideas to the jury and defend them. The competition jury included Mr. Ivars Jakovels, the Freeport of Riga Board Member, the competition “The Port for the City” jury Chairman, Ms. Kristine Berzina, the lecturer of the Latvian University Economics and Management Faculty International Economics and Business chair, Mr. Modris Ozolins, Riga Technical University International Programs Division Manager, and Ms. Anete Zvaigzne, the first winner of the competition “The Port for the City”, Riga Technical University Environment Science Master program student. The cycle of educational competitions “The Port for the City” was launched by the Freeport of Riga Authority in spring 2012.

The competition “The Port for the City” has become a tradition, and each year some of the ideas are included into the Freeport Bank of Ideas to be implemented in the future with the aim to benefit the port development.