OREANDA-NEWS. September 26, 2011. During his working visit to the United States, President of Latvia Andris Berzins has planned a series of bilateral meetings with heads of state. The first took place and was with Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani of the State of Qatar.
 
During their meeting, the emir said that Qatar is interested in investing in Latvia's economy and suggested the establishment of an intergovernmental commission to talk about mutually advantageous models for co-operation, as well as to identify those specific sectors of the economy in which Qataris might want to invest. President Berzins expressed firm support for the idea and promised that Latvia will follow up on it.
 
The President informed the Qatari emir about Latvia’s economic and political situation, focusing in particular on the country’s ability to overcome its crisis successfully and to pursue the need for economic development. This, he said, is fully in line with the need to facilitate the attraction of foreign investments.
 
There is no relationship in terms of exports and imports between Latvia and Qatar at this time. The primary role of Qatari investments in the world has related to real estate, banks and the chemicals industry. Qatar’s leading investments in Europe relate to companies such as Volkswagen, Barclays, Lagardere and Sainsbury’s.