First flight from Tokyo lands in Riga

2009-08-07
In cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

RIGA- Head of the Bilateral Relations Directorate, Ambassador Eduards Stiprais met with the Director of the Europe Division in the Trade Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, Hidehiro Muramatsu on August 5. During the meeting, the parties discussed bilateral co-operation between Latvia and Japan, highlighting the possibilities for expanding economic co-operation.

During the discussion, Stiprais expressed gratitude for Japan's strong support to the organization of direct charter flights, and was hopeful that such flight would be organized also in future providing opportunities for tourists and business people to develop closer contacts.

Eduards Stiprais spoke about the comparative advantages of the Latvian ports and emphasized opportunities for further development of cooperation in the fields of transit, logistics and engineering industry.

Japan's side admitted that further expansion of cooperation between both countries has a great potential. Japanalso encouraged the continuation of the work on spreading information on Latvia's comparative advantages to the business community.

August 4 saw the first ever charter direct flight of Japan Airlines toRiga,with 350 tourists and leading representatives from the Japanese tourism industry and authorities of Ministry of Economics on board.