Liepaja - the third largest city in Latvia, with a population of 93,000, is located in the south-western side of the country, on the Baltic Sea coast. It is first mentioned in historic chronicles in 1253, but was officially accorded city status in 1925. Every year on March 18 the inhabitants of Liepaja celebrate the city's birthday. Liepaja experienced the biggest impetus to its development at the end of the 19th century. In 1860 Liepaja still had just over 8.000 inhabitants. In 1868 the construction of the port of Liepaja started again and in 1876 a Liepaja - Romna railway line was opened; the rail line was of special importance to varied transit shipments through the port of Liepaja. An unprecedented rapid period of industrial and trade development began in Liepaja.

Liepaja surpassed the port of Riga and other competing ports in terms of the volume of reloaded cargo and at this time the population increased over ten times, exceeding 100,000. This kind and speed of growth was not experienced by any other city in Latvia.

The First World War and the new situation in Europe put a brake on the city's development. After the war, the population of Liepaja decreased by half, an even though there was noticeable economic activity and construction in the city up to WWII, Liepaja never reached its pre-WWl levels

The 1939 agreement with the USSR once again changed Liepaja's geo-political significance. The city became an USSR military support base in the Baltic Sea basin, and all economic activity, directly or indirectly was linked to the social programme goals of the military base. In 1974 the population once again reached 100,000, and by 1985 it was already 114. 000. However, the percentage of Latvians in the city was only 38%. These specific developments in the city's history, and the use of the port practically only for military goals meant that Liepaja disappeared from the world economic turnover map.

After Latvia regained independence, the city once again had the possibility to develop normally. Making use of its advantageous geographic location and the benefits of being an ice-free port years Liepaja went from zero to 1.6 million tons of cargo turnover. And that is only part of the possibilities now open to Liepaja, since even without any special investment, the turnover can be increased to 6 million tons annually.