Today, on June 30, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis held a meeting with a delegation of the U.S. House of Representatives and emphasized Latvia’s advantages in developing the economic cooperation and investment projects – open business environment, highly qualified labour force and strategic infrastructure connections with Western and Eastern regions.
The Prime Minister pointed out that export and production have been the major factors, which have helped to restore growth during the crisis. In view of the relatively slow pace of development in Europe, Latvia is interested in expanding the economic cooperation with more dynamically developing markets, including the USA, focusing on the projects aiming at production, exports and creation of new jobs.
The Nordic Distribution Network - a transport corridor ensuring delivery of NATO non-military cargos to Afghanistan also plays an important role in the strategic partnership of Latvia and the USA. Latvia has the role of the leading country in this corridor; therefore, V.Dombrovskis stressed that Latvia is interested in developing it by servicing also the cargo flows outgoing Afghanistan and beginning servicing commercial cargoes. The Prime Minister also informed the congressmen that the Latvian entrepreneurs are ready to increase the amount of products and services they offer to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.
“The cooperation between Latvia and the USA is becoming increasingly stronger in both economic and diplomatic dimension, and Latvian entrepreneurs have great interest in opportunities to cooperate with the USA. The forthcoming visit of the U.S. entrepreneurs’ delegation next week and the Latvian-US Business Forum will be another impetus for enhancing this cooperation,” said the Prime Minister.
V.Dombrovskis informed the congressmen also about the application submitted by Latvia on the accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and called on the U.S. side to support Latvia’s endeavours to join this organization.
The representatives of the Congress appreciated Latvia’s accomplishments in overcoming the crisis – regaining the economic stability and restoring growth. The representatives of the USA expressed satisfaction over increased mutual trade between Latvia and the USA in recent years and were of the same opinion with the Prime Minister that both sides should continue to support this positive trend. The congressmen expressed interest also in the latest developments in the European Union and the euro area, incl. the decisions adopted at the European Council meeting in Brussels that was held this week.
Today, eight representatives of the U.S. Congress are paying a visit to Latvia – Dan Burton, the head of delegation and congressmen - Luis Gutierrez, Tim Holden, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Gregory Meeks, Todd Platts, Jean Schmidt and Theodore Deutsch.
Photo of the meeting of the Prime Minister and the delegation of the U.S. congress are available in the photo album of the State Chancellery:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/valstskanceleja/sets/72157630354274830/
Supplementary information:
Mārtiņš Panke
Press Secretary to the Prime Minister
Phone: +371 67082865 / +371 26556965
E-mail: Martins.Panke@mk.gov.lv
|
