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The following is a description of Daugavpils today at their official
web site www.daugavpils.lv
Daugavpils is the second largest
city in Latvia. The first historical reference goes back to 1275.
Thus, the year 2000 was celebrated as the 725th anniversary of the city.
Daugavpils is located approximately 230 km south-east of the capital of
Latvia, Riga, on the banks of the Daugava River which is over 1000 km in
length and which flows from its source in Russia, through Byelorussia
and Latvia before entering the Baltic Sea via the Gulf of Riga.
The city has a favorable geographical position as it borders on
Byelorussia and Lithuania (distances of 33 and 25 km respectively). It
is located some 120 km from the borderline with Russia.
In 2003 the population of
Daugavpils was 112,032 inhabitants (Russians -54.97%, Latvians - 16.37%,
Polish - 14.99%, Byelorussians - 8.65% and Ukranians - 2.4%).
Taking into account the proximity to the borders and the multinational
composition of the population, three consulates (Russian, Byelorussian
and Lithuanian) selected the city for their operations.
Daugavpils is a big industrial centre
and railway junction in the south-east of Latvia. It has railway
connections with Riga, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vilnius and Panevezhis.
Automobile routes to Lithuania, Byelorussia and Russia are highly
developed. There are facilities and capacities for the development of
air traffic.
The industry of the city is represented by eighteen major enterprises.
They include: energy enterprises and metal-processing plants:
joint-stock company "Chain-Belt Plant" (agricultural machines,
automobile and bicycle driving chains, children's bicycles), joint-stock
company "Dauer" (electric hammers, boring machines, wood-processing
appliances, various building and assembling machines), joint-stock
company "Locomotive" (engine and electric sections repairs), "Ziglera
Mashinbuve" company (agricultural mowers) and others.
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Food industry enterprises located in
the city, namely "Daugavpils Meat-Processing Plant" (meat
products), "Latgales Piensaimnieks" (dairy products), "Antaris"
(bread-making and baking products), "Pallada" (alcoholic beverages),
manufacture popular products of high quality that are competitive on the
Western market.
The company "Dinaz" is engaged in the transit, storage and sales
of the petroleum products and actively co-operates with the Baltic, CIS
and Western countries.
In general, some 1,900 businesses
are operating in the city.
The city industrial enterprises manufacture products for the total
amount of more than 85 mln Ls annually. 30 per cent of the production
are exported to the Western countries and 40 per cent - to CIS
countries. The number of workers and employees at these industrial
enterprises amounts to 14,000.
More than 1,100 trading businesses are operating in the city. Daugavpils
also has bus and tram routes.
In addition to that, virtually all main Latvian commercial banks have
their branches in Daugavpils. At the moment the city is implementing the
waste waters cleaning project which is financed by the World Bank (21mln
USD).
Daugavpils is an important cultural
centre in Eastern Latvia. There are 27 primary and secondary
schools, 2 vocational schools and "Saules" school. More than 1,000
teachers and engineers graduate from the Daugavpils University and local
branch of the Riga Technical University annually.
The city theatre was restored a couple of
years ago. Besides, there are also cinemas and other cultural
institutions. The city exhibition centre offers a lot of cultural
activities.
There are many architectural, historical and cultural monuments in
Daugavpils. The most prominent is the Daugavpils Fortress of the XVIII
century.
The city is surrounded by beautiful lakes. All this makes the city a
promising region for the development of international tourism. |
