It is a big challenge for a small country like Latvia to perform megaprojects and thus needs to build-up specific competences.

Latvia is a democratic and developed country and member of the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, the United Nation (and other institutions).  Latvia was invited to join the OECD in 2016. For 2014, Latvia was listed 46th on the Human Development Index and as a high income country on 1 July 2014. Since the year 2000, Latvia has had one of the highest (GDP) growth rates in Europe. Latvian GDP for 2015 estimates at total $49.891 billion. Privatization in Latvia is almost complete. Virtually all of the previously state-owned small and medium companies have been privatized, leaving only a small number of politically sensitive large state companies. The private sector accounted for nearly 68% of the country’s GDP in 2000.

Some interesting megaprojects in Latvia are: Rail Baltica (4 billion EURO), Riga Northern Transport Coridor (1,5 billion EURO), e-Health implementation, Kurzemes loks (200 million EURO).

1. Railroad  – Rail Baltica (4 billion EUR budget)

Following the regain of independence of the Baltic States in the 90s of the past century, an idea about connecting the Baltic States to “the heart of Europe” was born. The idea of Rail Balticaintended to renew direct connection to the railway network of Europe by building a new European standard 1435 mm gauge railway in the Baltic States and connecting such metropoles as Tallinn – Riga – Kaunas – Vilnius – Warsaw – Berlin and prolonging the route to other European cities up to Venice in the future. Overall Rail Baltica budget is around 4 billion Euro with European Union support up to 85%. This investment will generate 11,900 jobs. It is estimated that each job in railways create 1,14 additional jobs in other industries.

2. Riga Northern Transport Coridor (around 1,5 billions EUR budget)

Riga Northern Transport Corridor is the largest transport infrastructure project in Riga of last decades. The overall objective of the project is to divert traffic from the centre of Riga City, improve environmental conditions in the city centre and city’s livability in general. Construction of the Northern Corridor will connect Riga Freeport to the Trans European (TEN-T) road network and improve the transport infrastructure system in Riga and its metropolitan area in general, raising growth opportunities and international competitiveness of the city, region and country in the long-term perspective. The project was launched in December of 2005. It is planned to start project construction in the period from 2015 until 2018, completing it until 2022.

3. e-Health implementation

E-health is a health program for more efficient use of information and communication technology tools. In European Union e-health is identified as a key tool for a health care quality, access and safety promotion. The main objectives of e-health development are to: improve health, promote individual control of their health; reduce wasted time spend on patients contacts with medical institutions and increase the effectiveness of the health care.

4. Latvian state energy project (200 million EUR) 

“Kurzemes loks” (KL) is the energy infrastructure project involving the construction of 330 kV high-voltage overhead power lines in the western part of Latvia, in order to avoid missing up to now increase the power connection to the likelihood of Kurzemes. KL is part of a larger – NordBalt – project, the implementation of which is intended Latvian – Estonia – Sweden interconnection of buildings in order to improve all of the Baltic energy supply. International energy infrastructure development project will be developed as a result of the Baltic electricity market, providing electricity purchase, sale and transit opportunities with other European Union countries.

Mentioned megaprojects are important component of Latvian economy. On the other hand, The Latvian National Project Management Association (LNPVA) is essential driver of developing profession of project management in the country. In the previous blog post you can read more about projects and project management in Latvia. IPMA has an interest group which is dealing with megaprojects and that can provide access to the international megaproject community. First IPMA Megaprojects SIG was held last year in Croatia. The SIG showed key points of research done so far in megaprojects, and this blog post explored best practices in IPMA member association: Latvia. What was done so far in your country?