Latvia’s ambassador to the UK Janis Dripe was guest speaker at the London Softwood Club lunch last week.
He told members that within a year Latvia would be a fully-fledged member of the European Union – and it had high hopes of becoming a full member of the NATO alliance.
Mr Dripe said Latvia was celebrating its 10th anniverary of a stable currency which made it a reliable partner for the UK , Latvia’s second biggest export market after Germany.
Latvia’s forest sector, he said, had become one of the most important in the country’s economy, employing 75-80,000 people out of a 2.4 million population with production accounting for 60-70% of the country’s GDP.
Mr Dripe said 44.4% of Latvia was made up of forest land – four times bigger than the European average – and added: “Successful development is based on a solid raw material.”
Manufacture of value-added products was increasing as production processes became more advanced and he said: “Such dynamic growth is related to new technology in the timber industry.”
He added that during the past year Latvia had attracted significant foreign investment with considerable interest in the forest sector.
