RIGA, Feb 18 (LETA) - It is necessary to make use of Nordic-Latvian cooperation potential, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said today after a meeting with Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (Unity) in Riga.
Reinfeldt noted successful cooperation between Latvia and Sweden, and emphasized that Latvia is a serious and reliable partner. Reinfeldt went on to say that Sweden understands Latvia's current situation because it faced similar economic problems and painful decisions in the 1990s.
Reinfeldt highly appreciated what Latvia has done so far to overcome the crisis. The prime ministers also discussed the implementation of the international loan program for Latvia, energy issues and the future priorities of Latvian agriculture policy.
During the meeting Dombrovskis confirmed that Latvia is interested in Sweden's investments in export-capable sectors with high value added, because so far Swedish investments mainly went into the financial and commercial sectors.
Dombrovskis also added that there is a great potential for economic cooperation between the two countries, particularly in the area of wood-working, engineering, information technologies, "green technologies", transit and logistics. The Swedish companies are already working in Latvia in sectors with high added value, for instance, "Hansa Electronics", "Leax Baltix", SEB unified service center and others.
Dombrovskis said that Sweden is one of the most important partners of Latvia for economic cooperation. According to the information provided by the Central Statistics Bureau, in first three quarters of 2010 Sweden was the fifth largest export market for Latvian goods and the ninth largest import partner. During this period, the total trade turnover of Latvia and Sweden amounted to EUR 466.8 million, thus Sweden is in sixth place among largest foreign trade partners of Latvia.
On January 12, 2011, the accumulated investment from Sweden into the equity capital of Latvian companies stood at LVL 286.43 million, and there were 639 Swedish-Latvian joint ventures registered in the Register of Enterprises.
Jānis Bagātais LETA Copyright © LETA
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