Latvian Premier Hopes For Stronger Ties with Qatar

Doha, March 16 (QNA) - Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis has expressed great pleasure over his recent visit to the State of Qatar describing it as the first high-level bilateral meeting between Qatar and Latvia as previous meetings took place on the sidelines of conferences or other meetings. In an exclusive interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA) the Latvian Prime Minister said the talks he held with Qatari officials, along with his accompanying delegation, dealt with political and economic relations, expressing the hope that the visit would contribute to enhancing all aspects of these relations. He said the visit's programme featured the first official meetings with HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al-Thani, in addition to the meeting held between members of his accompanying delegation with their Qatari peers in some companies such as Hasad Food Company and Qatar Airways. The Latvian Prime Minister said his country is interested in developing prospects of cooperation with the state of Qatar in various political and economic fields, noting that Qatar and Latvia are currently working on preparing some treaties, agreements and memorandums of understanding in a number of fields, explaining that the "Qatari side was active in proposing a range of agreement and is waiting for our response which will come as quickly as possible", praising the great effort made by Qatar to achieve development and economic diversity in all sectors. On the potential areas of cooperation, the Latvian official explained that his country is focusing on three major sectors, namely energy, transport and finance pointing out that Latvia is currently working on a project for a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal "to diversify our gas supplies." He said Lativia will seek cooperation from Qatar Bourse (Qatar Exchange) as a supplier and investor in this LNG terminal. In the sectors of transport and finance, the Latvian official pointed to meetings held between members of his country's delegation and officials of Qatar Airways to discuss future prospects of cooperation between the two companies as well as a meeting held with the Qatar Ports Authority to discuss cooperation between ports of the two countries, referring in this regard to the existence of two major ports in Latvia as well as a third smaller one movement which transport a quite substantial amount of cargo and the role they play in the East-West transit trade. As regards to the financial sector the Latvian official revealed that his country would like to sell some state-owned banks. With regard to the prospects of trade between the two countries, the Latvian prime minister said his country would like to increase the volume of trade between the two countries, especially in the fields of timber industry and agricultural production which are the biggest export sector, pointing out that his country's economy is quite diversified. ''We have machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, Information Communication Technology (ICT) and other sector,'' he said He noted that the business delegation that accompanied him during his visit to the State of Qatar, which covered all sectors looking for greater opportunities of investment with the State of Qatar and the region, adding that during his visit to the United Arab Emirates before coming to Qatar he discussed prospects of cooperation with his country, praising "the very good growth achieved in the Gulf region and the great opportunities that have not yet been exploited''. On the economic situation in his country Dembrovskys said Latvia has been able during the global economic crisis to restructure its economy to become the third economy in terms of speed of growth in the European Union in 2011 which reached 5.5%. He added that growth in the industry sector amounted to between 13 to 14% over the past two years, while the percentage of exports during the corresponding period increased to 30%. He said, "we can say that industrial production and export were the sectors that brought Latvia out of the economic recession and decreased the budget deficit to less than 2.5% of GDP, the lowest in the EU." Commenting on the accession of Latvia to the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the gains from such joining, the Latvian Prime Minister said "First and foremost we saw it from its geopolitical meaning to make sure that Latvia belongs to Europe and the West and not falls somewhere in the grey zone between East and West." . He pointed out that from this point of view it seems important that the accession to both NATO and the EU facilitated the growth of economy in Latvia.'' We get funding from the Union, in addition to enjoying the EU four freedoms namely: freedom of movement of persons, goods, services and capital'' . In response to a question about the change in his country after the collapse of the Soviet Union of which Latvia was a member republic, Dembrovskys said "It was a challenging period for us because we had a huge economic crisis when the economy of the Soviet Union was collapsing and the market economy has not yet been established. Our GDP declined in the beginning of the nineties of the last century by 50 per cent and we suffered from high inflation. " Concluding, the Prime Minister of Latvia his country sought to join the European Union and NATO and made it a strategic objective and a desire by our country to become a functioning democracy and a functioning market economy.(QNA)