Foreign Ministry to closer cooperate with LCCI

On 23 December the Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs met with senior management of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) – President Gundars Strautmanis and Chairman of the Board Jānis Endziņš – in order to discuss cooperation in advancing Latvia’s external economic interests. The LCCI indicated that it was necessary to work closer together on identifying entrepreneurs’ interests and to devise a unified system for safeguarding economic interests. 

The minister accentuated that the Foreign Ministry highly estimates the ongoing cooperation with the LCCI. He also noted that the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation among the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economics, the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (IDAL), the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and the Employer’s Confederation of Latvia (ECL) in representing economic interests of Latvia abroad is a solid platform for a more efficient coordination of common efforts. It is important to define concrete steps towards the achievement of the goals laid down in the memorandum.

During the meeting, the parties discussed initiatives targeted at raising the awareness of the LCCI members on current developments in foreign trade, including Russia’s accession to the WTO.

The minister also accepted the LCCI’s invitation to a meeting with the members of the chamber. Provisionally the meeting could be held during the first quarter of 2012.