EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Investments, Latvia, Technology

Photo: em.gov.lv

Answering her question about the development of startups in Latvia, Aseradens said that development of the startup ecosystem was among the ministry's priorities, the Economics Ministry said.

"Latvia has created a regulation for development of startups that is unique in Europe. In the last two years I as the minister have made major effort to develop a startup ecosystem which by now has attracted global attention, including from venture capitalists and accelerators, also from Germany," the Latvian economics minister said.

He said that Latvia was interested in strengthening cooperation between startups and universities in Baden-Wurttemberg and Germany in general, as well as in integration of international accelerators that would help Latvian startups to expand their business in Europe and globally.

Hoffmeister-Kraut said that further innovation growth in Baden-Wurttemberg would focus on closer synergy between startups and corporations was therefore she was particularly interested in Latvia's unique startup regulation. She invited Latvian representatives to the startup summit to be organized by the government of Baden-Wurttemberg in February 2019.

She also spoke about development of the dual education system in Baden-Wurttemberg and invited Latvia to closer cooperation and exchange of experience in this field. Aseradens said that cooperation between vocational schools in particular should be strengthened.

In 2017, Germany was Latvia's second largest trade partner as the total trade turnover of goods and services reached EUR 2.95 billion, rising 10 percent from 2016.