The registered volume of new foreign investment from September 2023 to the end of June 2024 reached 8.7 billion euros, Economy Minister Viktor Valainis (Green and Farmers Union) announced on Wednesday at a meeting of the Coordination Council for Large and Strategic Investment Projects. The Minister emphasizes that that the information available to the Latvian Investment and Development Agency shows that the number of registered investment projects during this period reached 153. At the same time, a potential investment volume of almost 8.7 billion euros would mean the creation of up to 4,575 new jobs. “We must make every effort to ensure that these investment projects, so important for the economic growth of Latvia, are implemented, and to remove as much as possible all obstacles to their implementation – both regulatory, bureaucratic and financial,” Valainis emphasized at the meeting. In the first six months of this year, 88 new investment projects were registered with a total potential investment amount of 7.4 billion euros. In 2022, 230 projects worth €5.8 billion were implemented, and in 2023, 180 projects worth €5.7 billion. Thus, it can be seen that interest has increased by two billion euros compared to the full twelve months of 2022 and 2023, Valainis noted. In May-June of this year, one can observe a rapid increase in investment from Germany – eight projects worth 400 million euros, which represents 26% of the financial value of 29 new investment projects registered during this period. For comparison, over the entire period since the beginning of this year, Dutch entrepreneurs submitted 11 investment projects, Danish ones – 10, and German entrepreneurs took third place with eight projects. Valainis emphasizes that “the rapid increase in interest of German entrepreneurs in investing in Latvia is closely related to the focused work of the government and the Ministry of Economics to develop cooperation with the German economy, which is significant in the EU.” At the same time, Valainis notes that several more events are expected in the second half of the year, which will further strengthen economic relations between Latvia and Germany. LIAA data on the current balance of incoming investment also shows that from the beginning of May to July 9 this year, 37 new investment projects were registered with an expected investment amount of 1.5 billion euros. Of the registered new projects, 11 are in the field of materials and photonics, eight are in the field of smart energy, six are in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT), three each are in bioeconomy and biomedicine. Another six investment projects were registered in industries not related to the areas of smart specialization. In general, data from the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia shows that during the period from September 2023 to June 2024 (inclusive) 44 foreign investment projects were implemented with a total investment of EUR 374.2 million for 1,685 new jobs. The majority – 29 out of 44 projects – are so-called "smart" specialization (RIS3) with a total investment of 268.7 million euros and 1,428 new jobs.
