As of September 4, Mārtiņš Baumanis heads the newly established representative office of Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) in South Korea aiming at facilitating export and investment.
Head of the office reveals that “there is a great potential in collaboration with South Korea, since in the past few decades the country has been among fastest growing economies in the world. The main attraction in Korean market for us are advanced Hi-Tech solutions, while we can offer them various Latvian-made niche-products. We can also provide organic and design products, in which South Korea shows a high level of interest. On top of that, over the last five years our collaboration in tourism has grown stronger, too.”
The surveys conducted by LIAA show that the interest of Latvian entrepreneurs in such markets as South Korea, Canada, Austria, and Belgium is increasing. Therefore, it was decided to open representative offices in these countries while closing those located in Lithuania, Poland, Kazakhstan, and Singapore. The office in South Korea will be the one taking over collaboration projects with Singapore.
In 2019, the export of goods and services to South Korea was worth 73.9 million EUR contributing to 0.4% of total export from Latvia. When compared to 2018, there has been increase in export to South Korea by 14%. This makes South Korea the 30th most important export partner of Latvia.
