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On Monday, June 13, in Hong Kong, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis and the delegation of Latvia’s entrepreneurs met Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China Lu Xinhua and Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Donald Tsang to discuss the opportunities to promote economic cooperation between enterprises of the Hong Kong Region and Latvia in view of Hong Kong’s potential as one of the global financial centers.
Both parties appreciated the established cooperation in the field of education – the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga are implementing the student exchange program. The Prime Minister noted that Latvia sees good opportunities for development of cooperation between Latvia and Hong Kong in tourism. Hong Kong is one of the most popular tourism destinations in Asia, while for tourists from Asia Riga is a new and interesting destination in Northern Europe. Moreover, in 2014, Riga will become the European capital of culture.
As regards the economic cooperation, Latvia is interested in increased exports of high-value- added goods to Hong Kong, as well as in attracting investments in sectors of industrial production and service. The parties agreed that there are extensive opportunities to improve cooperation between both parties’ enterprises also in the area of transit, logistics, financial sector, food production and processing.
The Latvian delegation also visited the University of Hong Kong, where Valdis Dombrovskis signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between the University of Latvia and the University of Hong Kong, which will serve as a basis for implementation of exchanges of students and academic staff, as well as for carrying out common researches. The Prime Minister of Latvia delivered a lecture at the University of Hong Kong on Latvia’s experience in solving the problems and effects caused by the financial crisis, as well as presented the book “How Latvia Came through Financial Crisis”.
Today, V.Dombrovskis and the delegation of Latvia’s entrepreneurs met the entrepreneurs of Hong Kong and Macau with a view to introduce them with opportunities for investments, export, import offered by Latvia, as well as to look for new business contacts and opportunities for cooperation with Latvia’s enterprises.
During his working visit to Hong Kong, V.Dombrovskis is accompanied by representatives of the following tourism companies – “TAS Baltics”, “Baltic Travel Group”, “Your Run” and the Rīga Tourism Development Bureau, wood processing companies – “Dendrolight Latvia”, “Dores Fabrika”, Authorities of Free Ports of Rīga and Ventspils, as well as companies “ABEDD Baltic” and “RRB Project”.
The Prime Minister’s working visit to Hong Kong lasts from June 11th until 13th and is aimed at promoting the political dialogue and economic cooperation between enterprises of the two countries.
For the photos of the meeting of the Prime Minister and Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region please visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/valstskanceleja/5828352944/in/phtive otostream
Supplementary information:
Mārtiņš Panke
Press Secretary to the Prime Minister
Phone: 67082865 / 26556965
E-mail: martins.panke@mk.gov.lv
www.mk.gov.lv
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