8 April, Minsk /Alina Grishkevich - BELTA/. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Vladimir Makei, will meet with the head of the Latvian foreign ministry, Edgars Rinkēvičs, in Vitebsk on 10 April, BELTA was informed by the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The heads of the foreign ministries plan to discuss the full range of current issues concerning the development of Belarusian-Latvian cooperation in the political, trade-economic, and humanitarian spheres, as well as interaction within the framework of Belarus-EU relations. In addition, the parties will consider the results of the practical implementation of the intergovernmental agreement on the simplified procedure for mutual trips of residents of the border areas of Belarus and Latvia, which entered into force on 1 February 2012.
During the visit, it is also planned to sign an agreement on the regime of the state border. From the Belarusian side, the Chairman of the State Border Committee, Aleksandr Boechko, is authorised to sign the document, and from the Latvian side – the Chief of the State Border Guard, Normunds Garbars.
The Republic of Latvia is an important economic partner of the Republic of Belarus. In 2012, Latvia ranked 5th in terms of trade turnover and 4th in terms of export volume among the countries with which Belarus conducts foreign trade.
In 2012, compared to 2011, the volume of mutual trade with Latvia increased by 4.6% to $3,425.1 million; exports grew by 4.1% to $3,279.9 million; imports increased by 18.1% to $145.2 million. The foreign trade balance is positive for Belarus ($3,134.7 million). The basis of Belarusian exports is made up of products from the petrochemical, metallurgical, machine-building, agricultural and forestry, and food industries. From Latvia, primarily medicines, fish, fabrics, knitwear, cement, engines and power units, and metal structures are imported.
In 2012, the volume of investments from Latvia exceeded the 2011 level (108.2%) and amounted to $129.3 million, including direct investments of $68.2 million (110%), of which net direct investments were $25.7 million (88.7%).
As of 31 January 2013, 373 enterprises with Latvian capital were registered in Belarus (in 2011 – 297) and 27 representative offices of Latvian enterprises (in Latvia, respectively, 1,123 enterprises with Belarusian capital and 15 representative offices of Belarusian economic entities).