Welcome

News article | February 18, 2012

Dear visitor, Welcome to the renewed website of the Netherlands Embassy in Riga. I hope the new site will provide answers to all your questions. If you should have more questions than these WebPages can answer, do not hesitate to contact us by telephone or by e-mail.

Since my arrival in August 2008 the main topic of my meetings with representatives of Latvian society was the global financial and economic crisis. I am happy to note that now a sense of relief, satisfaction and pride in Latvia’s spectacular economic turnaround prevail. Key economic indicators remain positive and point towards further growth. So, there is every reason for optimism. The many intensive relations between our two countries, for instance, in the fields of trade promotion, education and culture, have not been affected unduly by the crisis. Uncertainties and cutbacks will be with us for some time to come, however, I remain confident that further progress in all aspects of our bilateral relations can be made.

Over the years bilateral trade figures have shown a strong performance by exporters from the Netherlands. In relative terms, the share of the Netherlands in Latvian imports has remained surprisingly steady during the years of crisis. This Embassy, where appropriate in close cooperation with the Netherlands-Latvian Chamber of Commerce, will continue its efforts to stimulate and support collective initiatives in the field of trade and investment, with a particular focus on wood processing, renewable energy, energy-efficiency in buildings, the environment, agriculture and horticulture and food trade. As always, the Embassy stands ready to assist individual companies wishing to do business in Latvia.

This year too, we will continue our cooperation with Latvian civil society and with a variety of Non-Governmental Organisations. Amsterdam and Riga have decided, after a change of mayors in both cities, to pursue their close twinning relationship. Riga mayor Nils Ushakovs visited our capital in May 2011.

I am proud to say that in 2011 the Embassy was again able to realize with our Latvian partners a number of interesting cultural projects, such as ‘Make Design/Dutch Design Made in Latvia’, an event that brought young top design talent from the Netherlands and Latvia together. On August 28 2011 it was exactly 20 years ago that diplomatic relations between our country and a newly independent Republic of Latvia were restored. The Embassy celebrated this memorable occasion with an exhibition of Chinese and Japanese export ceramics and the world famous ‘Delft Blue’ from Dutch collections in the new foreign art museum ’Riga Bourse’.

We are looking forward to new cultural and public diplomacy projects this year, such as a show of the work of the painter Hendrik Valk, who in the Twenties and Thirties spent many summers in Riga and Jurmala (opening in Riga Bourse Museum on 4 April 2012).

So, may I invite you to visit this website frequently for updates and details of events and manifestations ‘Made in Holland’ due to take place in the months to come?

Jurriaan Kraak
Ambassador
February 2012