OREANDA-NEWS.March 19, 2012. During the Latvia-UAE Business Forum that was held in Dubai – the city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Arab entrepreneurs confirmed their interest in Latvia as a platform for cooperation with the markets of Russia and CIS countries. Additional confidence in Latvia as a stable cooperation partner is provided by its membership in the EU and NATO and the progress towards the introduction of the euro is considered by the UAE’s entrepreneurs as another advantage of Latvia.

Also Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis in his address opening the business forum emphasized the geographical location as one of the most important advantages of Latvia: “Latvia is the gate to both, Western Europe and Scandinavia, Russia and CIS. Latvia is one of the most open countries to entrepreneurship as evidenced by the World Bank’s Doing Business 2011, ranking Latvia the 21st”.

The Draft Convention between the Government of the Republic of Latvia and the Government of the United Arab Emirates for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital signed by Maris Selga, Ambassador of Latvia to the UAE and Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of Finance of the UAE on March 11 in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the UAE, will be additional impetus for strengthening the economic relations between the two countries.

Within the framework of the visit to the UAE, Valdis Dombrovskis met Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE, the monarch of Dubai and Lubna Khalid Al Qasimi, Minister of Foreign Trade for the United Arab Emirates by emphasizing that the large delegation of Latvian entrepreneurs that has arrived to the UAE confirms Latvia’s interest in strengthening the economic cooperation with the UAE. The Prime Minister also informed the UAE’s officials about Latvia’s interest in attracting investments in manufacturing, financial, transport and logistics sectors as well as other sectors and called on the UAE to consider Latvia as one of the target countries when planning the deployment of its investments in foreign countries. V.Dombrovskis also pointed to the need to facilitate the visa regime with Latvia and invited the two high officials to visit Latvia to familiarize themselves with opportunities offered by our country.

The representatives of the Latvian delegation, incl., Martin Gauss, President of the airline airBaltic and representatives of the government’s consultants Prudentia met the management of the airlines Etihad Airways and Fly Emirates and agreed to continue bilateral negotiations on the opportunities for cooperation. The meeting with Abu Dhabi government owned investment fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority was held, a visit to Jebel Ali Free Port took place and a meeting with company DP World - one of the global leaders in the area of container terminal management was held.

During the visit to the Middle East, the Prime Minister will be accompanied by a delegation of 43 entrepreneurs representing 33 companies of the following sectors: education, finance, IT, wood processing, transport and logistics, construction and real estate, energy, metal processing, food production, medical services etc.