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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Thursday, 28.03.2024, 13:49

FDI projects in Latvia up 39% in 2017 - survey

BC, Riga, 11.10.2018.Print version
With 53 new projects financed with foreign direct investment (FDI) launched in Latvia in 2017, FDI projects grew 39% from 2016, according to a survey on FDI attraction conducted by Ernst&Young (EY), citing LETA.

EY partner in the Baltics Guntars Krols told LETA that the number of FDI projects started in Latvia in 2017 was the highest in a decade. “This is an achievement which shows that Latvia and the Baltics as a whole have achieves a good level of recognizability as safe and profitable countries to invest in. It is also noteworthy that by the number of new FDI projects we have moved ahead of developed European countries like Austria and Norway which last year had 40 and 26 new FDI projects respectively,” he said.


The EY Attractiveness Survey reveals that the number of new FDI projects in Latvia continued to grow for a third consecutive year in 2017, although y-o-y growth was slower than in other Baltic states. Compared to 2016, new FDI projects surged 68 percent in Lithuania and doubled in Estonia in 2017.


At the same time, FDI made in Latvia created nearly twice as many new jobs as in Estonia. Last year, FDI created 2,690 jobs in Latvia, 1,362 in Estonia and 7,487 in Lithuania.


“Our challenge is to be able to attract investors who would choose Latvia as their regional investment center, that is, to open their head offices in Latvia, from which operations would be managed also in other countries. At present this function is being performed by larger countries - Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary - which is why they are attracting three or four times more FDI projects than Latvia,” Krols concluded.


The EY survey also shows that a total of 6,653 new FDI projects were launched across Europe in 2017, which is a 10% increase from 2016. The UK led other European countries with 1,205 projects, Germany followed with 1,124 projects and France was third with 1,019 new investment projects.






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