News & Articles
June 16, 2020
Why do business in Latvia ?
Latvia is a perfect place for doing business, as it offers a variety of competitive advantages. These consist of cost effectiveness, a highly trained workforce, well-developed infrastructure, and macroeconomic steadiness. Investors likewise appreciate easy accessibility to other markets in the region, as well as access to European Union Structural Funds.
The capital of Latvia is Riga, the largest city of the Baltic States, and an important financial, cultural, industrial, business and political center. With its exceptional location on the shores of the Baltic Sea and highly advanced ice-free ports Latvia plays an important part in the busy trading course between the East and West. In cooperation with Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, Latvia forms the eastern border of the EU with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The key export partners for Latvia are UK, Germany, Sweden, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia and Denmark. Exported commodities include wood and wood products, machinery and equipment, metal, textiles and foodstuffs.Latvia is an EU country, a member of Schengen zone, member state of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and an active participant of the World Trade Organization, enjoying all the benefits of free and open trade in the world’s markets. Customs and border procedures have been standardized for effective planning and coordination with trade partners around the world.( read more here )
Because of its richness of natural resources traditional types of craftsmanship, such as woodworking, metalworking and technical manufacturing are well developed in the region. The transport and logistics sectors similarly add substantially to GDP. Moreover, IT, energy, water, modern food production and creative industries can be identified as sectors with major potential. Latvia’s external trade and customs policy is based on free trade principles.
The Latvian economy is dominated by the sectors of Services, Industries and Agriculture. The Services sector provides the biggest employment opportunity in Latvia as it employs 60 % of the labor force and contributes 69.9 % of the country’s annual GDP. The Industrial sector which includes timber, construction, food processing and information technology, electronics, pharmaceutical and chemical industries is the second largest and generates 26 % of the country’s annual GDP. The Agricultural sector provides employment for 15% of the labor force and generates 4.1% of the annual GDP. Most significantly, it feeds the population.
Latvia offers open-minded business environment with a well-educated multilingual workforce, a simple and favorable tax system and an efficient business infrastructure. Most of the population speaks at least 3 languages – Latvian, English and Russian. Moreover, the youngest population usually speaks another foreign language such as French, German, Spanish of Norwegian .
Latvians have strong work ethics and are extremely motivated. Latvia’s history has equipped its employees with knowledge of business and cultural standards and customs that empower partnership with Western European countries and has learned to carry out business relations with Central European business cultures.
We at Venture Faculty helps businesses from Latvia to grow and foreign companies to enter the European market through Latvia. Our services include fundraising, consulting, customer development, investment advisory, relocation support as well as co-working premises equipped with everything needed for enjoyable office workspace. Email us at hello@venturefaculty.io if you want to know more about your business opportunities in Latvia.
Written by : Sabīna Novicka
