Proactive work of LIAA representations will contribute to growth of Latvia's economy - Valainis

RIGA - Proactive work of the Latvian Investment and Development Agency's (LIAA) foreign economic missions contributes to the growth of Latvia's economy, Economics Minister Viktors Valainis (Greens/Farmers) told LETA.

On Friday, the minister met with the heads of the Latvian foreign economic representations to discuss the objectives for 2025, planned visits of the minister and business delegations, as well as current issues for the representations.

"Our goal is to double Latvia's economy by 2035, and the performance of LIAA and Latvia's foreign economic missions, especially in attracting new investments and promoting exports, plays an important role in achieving this goal," the minister emphasized during the meeting.

Discussing the priorities of the work of the representations for the current year, the minister stressed that the most important ones are the increase of foreign investments and Latvian exports. Thus, proactive work of the LIAA representations is important, as well as close cooperation with the Economics Ministry and business organizations.

At the same time, the minister thanked the heads of the representative offices for the results of their work in 2024, including the visits of Latvian business delegations, which had resulted in an increase in investors' interest in working in Latvia.

The ministry noted that investments from Germany had increased almost fourfold over the past year, with visits by officials and business people to Germany contributing significantly.

The meeting also discussed the target countries for officials and business delegations planned for 2025, available state support for entrepreneurs, including foreign investors, as well as the objectives and progress of the AI Centre of Excellence.

This year, major investment attraction and export promotion activities are also foreseen at the Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan.

Latvia currently has foreign economic missions in 21 countries - France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Norway, Italy, Germany, Austria, Japan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, the US, the UK, Canada, Finland, Belgium, Switzerland, South Korea, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. In 2025, missions are also planned for Spain and Indonesia.

Last year, LIAA's foreign economic representations addressed almost 400 foreign investors, implementing 45 new investment projects worth EUR 655.4 million and creating 2,023 new jobs.