Prime Minister will visit Latvia

The next on the list of countries visited by Premier Vasile Tarlev will be Latvia. The official visit of a Moldovan delegation to Riga is scheduled for May 10-11. Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga recently announced that Latvia will launch in autumn an assistance programme for Moldova following the model of those that already exist for Georgia and Ukraine. During Moldovan President’s visit to Sweden, the two heads of state pleaded for strengthening Moldovan-Latvian relations at different levels, including humanitarian one. The Latvian President underlined that Moldova’s progress in improving living standards will be an argument for the European states to accept it in the European family. Latvia recently voiced its readiness to introduce a facilitated visa system for Moldovan citizens and to participate in the Common Centre for issuing visas to Moldovan citizens for European countries. Moldovan exports to Latvia totalled in 2006 about USD 3.7 mln, while the imports – about USD 5.2 mln. In 2005, these indexes made up USD 3 mln and about USD 2.9 mln, respectively.