Belarus, Investments, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

Considering the political situation in Belarus, LIAA has mobilized resources to address and provide all necessary assistance to those business representatives who have voiced interest in cooperation with Latvia and wants to develop their business in Latvia.

Rozkalns said that LIAA and the Citizenship and Migration Affairs Boars have set up a special team that reviews applications from Belarus business representatives, offering possible solutions, including the so-called start-up vise or the EU "blue card" or temporary residence permits for highly qualified specialists and their family members.

"The political instability in Belarus seriously affects also the economic situation. According to the World Bank forecasts, Belarus is to see an economic recession in 2020, which only partly is related with Covid-19 pandemic, and the recession will last for several years. In order to help Belarus companies and specialists to overcome this complicated period more successfully, we invite them to partly or fully transfer their operations to Latvia," said Rozkalns.

According to him, Latvia is especially interested in cooperation with Belarus business representatives in ICT, bioeconomy, smart technologies, biomedicine and other medium or high technologies, however, being aware of the actual situation, Latvia is open also for other companies.