OREANDA-NEWS. June 18, 2012. During the meeting with Lord Stephen Green, Minister of State for Trade and Investment of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis stressed the need to expand the economic cooperation between Latvia and Great Britain, calling on the entrepreneurs of Great Britain to consider the development of manufacturing projects in Latvia and to intensify bilateral trade.
 
Valdis Dombrovskis: “Great Britain is an important cooperation partner of Latvia, however, I see that there is still unused potential in our economic relations; its realization would make a positive contribution to both countries. It will also be promoted by our joint determination to work on breaking down the existing administrative and trade barriers in the internal market of the European Union that will give a positive impetus for growth across the Europe”.

The Minister of State for Trade and Investment of Great Britain appreciated Latvia’s achievements in overcoming the crisis consequences, and agreed to the Prime Minister’s view that Europe needs to improve compliance with fiscal discipline, while implementing growth-enhancing measures. S.Green stated that it is also the strategy of Great Britain, which has set the goal to achieve a balanced budget in 2016-2017.

The Prime Minister also stressed Latvia’s priorities in the next multiannual financial framework of the EU – to retain adequate funding in the cohesion policy that will provide the opportunity for Latvia and other Baltic countries to reduce the regional disparities faster with more developed regions of the EU, as well as to ensure fair conditions regarding the distribution of direct agricultural payments.

V.Dombrovskis and S.Green also discussed current developments in the euro area, incl. the agreement that was reached last week on the allocation of the loan to Spain to ensure the stability of the banking system. The officials shared the opinion that this decision will help strengthen the stability in the euro area; however Spain has to think about regaining its competitiveness.

The officials exchanged views on the forthcoming Northern Future Forum summit to be held in Riga at the beginning of 2013. Discussing the topics to be discussed at the summit, S.Green pointed out that the government of Great Britain believes that it would be important to discuss the opportunities to promote sustainable and environmentally friendly entrepreneurship in the region, particularly in the small and medium enterprises’ sector.

This is already the second visit of the representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers of Great Britain in Latvia this year. In March 2012, the Prime Minister met David Lidington, Minister of State Responsible for European Issues and NATO.