Editing Riga Autobus Factory (section)

=== Move to Jelgava, decline and collapse ===
Construction of a new factory in [[Jelgava]] (to build the new 962-II, now known as the [[RAF-2203|RAF-2203 Latvia]]) was begun on 25 July 1969, and finished in February 1976.<ref name="Thompson, p.195" />  It was designed to produce 17,000 vehicles per year. The factory produced several versions of the RAF-2203, which was widely sold in the Soviet Union and exported, mainly to Socialist bloc and aligned nations.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2021-01-23 |title=Latvijas noslēpums: kā kvalitatīvie RAF mikroautobusi kļuva par brāķiem |url=https://jauns.lv/raksts/9viri/424507-latvijas-noslepums-ka-kvalitativie-raf-mikroautobusi-kluva-par-brakiem |access-date=2022-08-13 |website=Jauns.lv |language=lv}}</ref>

The massive factory created profound challenges for Soviet-occupied Latvia. During its planning, local economists warned that the project was unfeasible in the long term, but were ignored by the Soviet government. Due to a lack of local manpower, workers from all around the Soviet Union were brought to Jelgava, increasing the already high levels of immigration and putting strain on local infrastructure and the ethnic relations between Latvians and the mostly Russian-speaking newcomers.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Zvrbulis |first=Arnis |date=2006-06-12 |title=RAF masīva spožums un posts |url=http://www.jelgavniekiem.lv/?act=4&art=1894 |access-date=2022-08-13 |website=www.jelgavniekiem.lv |language=lv}}</ref> The proportion of Latvians living in Jelgava shrank from 80% to less than 50% during the Soviet times. An entirely new neighbourhood of Jelgava, bearing the RAF name, was built.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2018-12-15 |title=The rise and fall of the RAF minibus factory |url=https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/the-rise-and-fall-of-latvias-raf-minibus-factory.a303005/ |access-date=2022-08-13 |website=eng.[[lsm.lv]] |language=en}}</ref>

In addition, even with the imported workforce, the factory suffered from a lack of qualified manpower: engineers (later on, also [[Conscription in the Soviet Union|conscript]] soldiers of the Soviet Army) were made to work on the production line. Quality issues were rampant and well-known; on some days, all of the manufactured vehicles turned out to be defective. Even the large factory, in the end, turned out to be too small (with a planned yearly output of just 12,000 cars per year) to install important machinery, slowing down production.<ref name=":2" /> A heavy blow for the factory came during [[Perestroika]] – around 1986, the factory was stripped of the [[State quality mark of the USSR]]. In 1987, the factory organized one of the first open management contests in the USSR, with [[Viktor Bossert]] from [[Omsk]] elected as director by the factory workers. Bossert tried to improve quality, even announcing a competition with [[Renault]]'s [[Renault Trafic|Trafic]] van, but couldn't overcome the ineffective supply chain of the Soviet [[planned economy]] and the lack of incentive and competition due to guaranteed tenders from the [[Gossnab]]. He left the factory in 1990.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

By the beginning of the 1990s, the RAF-2203 was completely outdated and the factory set about designing a new model. The original plan was to build a new RAF vehicle to be called the [[RAF M1 'Roksana'|M1 "Roksana”]], designed with help from the British consultancy ''International Automotive Developments''. The model was successfully displayed at several auto salons, but never got further than a prototype. The same thing happened to the front-wheel drive 1994 [[RAF M2 'Stils']] (“Style”) microbus.<ref name=":2" />

After the collapse of the [[USSR]], the new borders broke the supply chains and production fell drastically{{Buzzword inline|date=May 2023}}. An investment proposal came from the Russian [[GAZ]] company, but it was rejected by the Latvian government, which considered Russian capital a threat to Latvian independence.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} Although some Western and East Asian investors also showed their interest in RAF, all of them considered this investment too risky as the local economy was too small to support large production and the Russian market was virtually closed due to the volatile Russian economy and a complicated political relationship between Russia and Latvia. The large factory, largely dependent on parts and materials brought from outside Latvia, required a lot of resources for its maintenance and was described by some investors as the only valuable asset of the factory.<ref name=":0" /> Another blow was the popularity of the Russian [[GAZelle]] van, unveiled in 1994.

In 1997, the last batch of 13-seat [[RAF-22039]]s was released. The last automobile produced by the dying giant was the [[RAF-3311]] — a [[hearse]].

In 1998, RAF went bankrupt. The only part of the company that survived was [[RAF-Avia]], a charter airline set up using the four airplanes owned by the plant. The {{convert|120,000|m²|ft2|abbr=on}} manufacturing site, complete with machinery, is owned by [[Joint stock company|JSC]] Balitva. They considered selling it to a western automaker, but this proved unrealistic. As of 2002, the assembly shop was still in order and all the design documents existed, so production could be started again if there should be a need. [[ErAZ]] expressed interest, but probably only for the designs.<ref name=kommersant>[http://www.kommersant.com/tree.asp?rubric=2&node=22&doc_id=345742  Latvia' RAF] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051211182354/http://www.kommersant.com/tree.asp?rubric=2&node=22&doc_id=345742 |date=2005-12-11 }} article in newspaper [[Kommersant]]</ref>

After the bankruptcy of RAF, factory's buildings and land were purchased by SIA Baltiva for 150 thousand lats (later known as SIA NP Jelgava Business Park). Shortly after, company's shares were transferred to the Nordic Partners group, which was originally financed by the Icelandic businessman Gisli Reyninsson (Icelandic: Reynisson Gisli). On the estates purchased, SIA NP Jelgava Business Park developed an industrial park with a total area of 23 ha.