Sweden played a major role during and after the Baltic freedom struggle. Not least, this was clear in relation to Latvia. But in recent years relations have been more strained. That was obvious during the economic crisis and in the last Latvian election campaign.
Many Latvian politicians turned their criticism against the Swedish banks. Opinion polls showed that voters were not as clear in this critique, but instead criticized several of their own politicians.
The time before the election, October 2 last year, there were many comments about Swedish investments solely focused on financial institutions, while investments in industry and enterprises have been much smaller. These investments have often gone elsewhere, not least to Estonia.
Now both the Swedish and the Latvian government have successfully passed the elections. The first initiatives have also been taken to get back to the good relations, which are normal between the two countries, whose capitals are just a little bit more than an hour's flight away from each other.
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Friday met his counterpart Valdis Dombrovskis (Unity) in Riga.
Reinfeldt noted the long and good cooperation between the two countries and pointed to Latvia as a serious and reliable partner. News agency LETA writes that the Swedish prime minister also expressed understanding of the economic situation that Latvia is experiencing, because Sweden was there in the early 1990s. Reinfeldt expressed his appreciation of what Latvia has done to get through the crisis.
Dombrovskis confirmed that Latvia would like to see more Swedish investments especially in export industries. He also pointed out the conditions for good cooperation between the two countries especially in areas such as woodworking, information technology, green technology, transit and logistics.
The Latvian Prime Minister also stressed that Sweden is one of Latvia's main trading partners. According to recent data from the Latvian Central Statistical Bureau Sweden is Latvia's fifth largest export market, while at the same time ninth largest in terms of imports.
The Register of Enterprises show 639 Swedish-Latvian joint ventures registered.
(Andra intressanta bloggar om politik, Lettland, Baltikum, Europa)
(Andra intressanta bloggar om politics, Latvia, Baltcs, Europe)
