Dr. Krišjānis Kariņš
Minister of Economics, Latvia
Madame President, Your Majesty, Ministers, Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen:
I am honored to have this opportunity to address you here in this important business forum on Latvian and Swedish economic cooperation.
The President of Latvia Mrs. Vaira Vīķe Freiberga during her State visit to the Kingdom of Sweden during the past two days has been accompanied by a prominent (and large) Latvian business delegation organized by the Latvian Investment and Development Agency. The large interest from the Latvian, as well as the Swedish business representatives present here today attests to the close ties our two countries enjoy. Indeed, the number of Latvian companies which wished to participate in this visit far exceeded the number that could attend.
The Latvian business delegation consists of 55 individuals representing 46 leading companies in the following sectors: banks & financial services, ports, logistics, metal processing, energy, infrastructure, ICT, electronics, construction, tourism & hospitality, textiles, design, legal services, and others. As this delegation represents, the interest of the business community comes from practically all economically active sectors in our country.
For the past two days, business representatives from both countries have participated in events such as the Latvian-Swedish Business forum, the Bilateral Financial and Investment Forum, group programs for ICT, electronics, metal processing, textile & design, and tourism, as well as numerous individual business-to-business meetings between Latvian and Swedish entrepreneurs.
Yesterday the President of Latvia, together with the Latvian Ministers of Finance, Culture, and Economics (that is me), had a very fruitful meeting with the Prime Minister of Sweden, Mr. Goran Persson, where, among other topics, we discussed our close economic ties and ways that we could make them even closer.
In addition to all of this, I had the great pleasure of opening the Latvian Tourist Information Bureau in Stockholm yesterday, which is the 5th such foreign bureau that we have opened. As a very fast-growing industry in our country (last year about 23%), we wish to get the word out to more potential Swedish tourists that Latvia is indeed a great (and very close) tourist destination that has a lot to offer.
I also had the opportunity to have a bilateral meeting with the State Secretary of the ministry of Industry and Trade Mr. Lars-Olof Lindgren, which was a fruitful discussion indeed. I wish to thank him for this discussion.
The main results from all of these business meetings during this very busy and exciting State visit are the following:
1. We have determined that our overall trade volumes between our countries are quite robust. Depending on whose statistics one chooses, either Latvia is importing more from Sweden than it exports to Sweden (Latvian statistics), or Sweden is importing more from Latvia than it exports to Latvia (Swedish statistics). I suppose that in this case I tend to like the Swedish statistics a little better. Discovering that my country has a positive (instead of negative) trade balance with Sweden has made this visit all the more enjoyable.
2. We see that Sweden is the #1 investor country in Latvia, with over 500 Swedish companies registered in our country. But we still see more room for growth here, especially among SME's. The exciting new trend that we are seeing is that Latvian companies are starting to break out of Latvia and go abroad, and the first place that they are coming is to Sweden. Currently there are about 10 Latvian companies operating in Sweden. A small, but definite start. We have every reason to believe that this trend will continue and the numbers will increase over the coming years.
3. Both Swedish and Latvian businesses have obtained more and better information about the investment opportunities that each country has to offer, as well made many contacts with potential partners.
But perhaps the most important result of these meetings has been the reaffirmation that both Latvia and Sweden highly value our excellent relationship, and we both understand that trade and investment between our countries is extremely beneficial to both.
We have every reason to believe that the positive economic activities between our two countries will continue to increase and strengthen. The potential that we have acknowledged is enormous. It is up to all of us to seize the opportunities that await us.
Thank you very much for your attention.