Economics, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Technology

"The EU and Latin America are sound partners. We are linked by an intense political dialogue, historical, cultural and economic links, which, in 2014 brought a double score in the area of trade, amounting to EUR 210 million. In turn, the EU's direct investment in Latin America and the Caribbean region reached 34%.

The EU has signed trade agreements with 26 states of the region. We are also satisfied with the implementation of the Association Agreements with Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Central America. The implementation of the Framework Agreement for Trade and Economic Cooperation with Argentina is successful.

 "It's time," said L. Straujuma, "to develop our cooperation in the fields of knowledge-based economy, IT and the so-called "smart" energy. We need to move forward with an economic model that would allow companies, countries, regions to be competitive on the world market, create new jobs and enhance the quality of life. To this end, Latvia supports the approach of smart specialization, by choosing the knowledge-based economy, biomedicine, IT, smart technologies and energy as the areas of specialization".

The Prime Minister said that the Latin American and Caribbean states could become an attractive market for innovative European companies.

Informing the business forum about the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council, L.Straujuma drew attention to the priorities of Latvia and the results achieved, by approving the European Fund for Strategic Investments, founding the European Energy Union, which helps increase the EU's competitiveness and business-friendly environment.

According to L. Straujuma, "As to the EU's cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean states in the field of sustainable energy, we should support the projects in the area of renewable energy and energy efficiency". In addition, according to the Prime Minister, the continuation of the digital agenda is essential for countries' economies and well-being of people. During the Latvian Presidency, the progress has been made on a number of digital agenda issues; incl. the European Commission has launched the EU's digital strategy.

L. Straujuma expressed the hope that it will be possible to expand the cooperation between the EU and Latin American and Caribbean countries in the field of information and communication technologies that would significantly help people in the social services sector and would reduce the digital divide in different regions.