RIGA - In order to even out the country's trade balance, Latvia's Ministry of Economy has elaborated the basic concept for promoting export.
Last year import exceeded export by 72.2 percent, and this year the difference is expected to reach 78.6 percent. According to the data from the Central Statistics Bureau, the amount of Latvian exports reached 1.2 billion lats (1.8 billion euros) in the nine months of 2003, while Lithuania exported goods for an equivalent of 2.88 billion lats and Estonia - for 1.87 billion lats, which puts Latvia in last place on a per capita basis.
Furthermore, due to the brisk pace of imports, Latvia's trade gap has widened this year. From January to September exports grew 13 percent year-on-year and imports 20 percent.
To correct the imbalance, the ministry wants to increase direct support to companies entering new export markets. The program would aim to increase the number of exporting companies by 5 percent - 10 percent annually, thereby creating some 2,000 new jobs.
The Ministry of Economy said that the fact that there are mostly small and medium sized companies in Latvia with limited manufacturing and marketing capacity is a primary reason for the country's low volume of export.
Importantly, these market players are best at finding attracting investments and introducing new technologies.
What's more, the ministry noted that small companies have much better possibilities to adapt to changes, and support from the state would give the necessary impulse to increase competitiveness.
