Prime Minister
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On Thursday 26 January, Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis opened the Latvian – Polish Business Forum in Warsaw.

Addressing the participants, M. Kučinskis pointed out that in the process of global economic transformation, services are playing an increasingly important role, in particular the ones which have not yet been created – and that is most directly related to the technological and data openness revolution.

He emphasized that Latvia is one of the best places to develop business, by reminding that much has been done over the last three years to strengthen the competitiveness of the country - in 2014, Latvia joined the Eurozone; in 2015, successfully held the first presidency of the Council of the European Union, and last year Latvia became a member of the OECD, while in the recently published representative Doing Business index we rank 14th.

M. Kučinskis also pointed out that the "Law on Aid for Start-up Companies" has entered into force providing the start-up companies with national support programs. It will contribute to increasingly active development of start-up companies, which in turn opens up opportunities for even more active cooperation between start-up companies of Latvia and Poland, for example, in the field of ICT and technology, which is defined as one of the areas of specialization of the Latvian economy. Thereby, the creation of an efficient ecosystem and development of a commercialization mechanism are on the agenda of the government and its cooperation partners.

Due to the favourable geographical location and success of both countries' representatives of the sector, the transport and logistics service sector greatly contributes to both economies.

M. Kučinskis also stressed that future cooperation between the countries will be successfully complemented and actively promoted by the Rail Baltica project. It will connect the Baltic countries to a common European rail infrastructure and increase the diversity of transport through Poland and the Baltic counties to the north of Europe.

"I sincerely hope that Poland will actively engage in the implementation of the project to take advantage of its benefits," said M. Kučinskis.

Poland is the fourth largest foreign trading partner of Latvia, and I hope for even closer economic cooperation between Latvia and Poland in the future. There are more than 300 Polish - Latvian joint ventures in Latvia. Since 2011, the number has doubled, and this proves the ability of both countries' entrepreneurs to cooperate efficiently.

As announced, Prime Minister M. Kučinskis is paying a working visit to Warsaw – the capital city of Poland to meet President of the Council of Ministers Beata Szydlo and participate in the Latvian – Polish Business Forum.

Andrejs Vaivars
Press Secretary to the Prime Minister
Phone: 29228678
E-mail: Andrejs.Vaivars@mk.gov.lv