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09/01/2004 - The government of Latvia has accepted an invitation from OECD countries to adhere to the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises, marking their recognition of its general openness to foreign direct investment and supporting economic policies.
The Declaration calls for treatment of foreign investors by host country governments no less favorable than that applied to domestic enterprises. It also promotes voluntary standards of responsible business conduct under the framework of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
Association with these OECD principles and standards will reinforce the Latvia government's efforts to pursue investment-friendly economic reforms. As an adherent to the Declaration, Latvia will share experiences with the 30 member countries of the OECD and the other adherents to the Declaration at present including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Estonia, Israel, Lithuania and Slovenia.
In less than a decade, and against a challenging international economic environment, Latvia has been successful in restoring macroeconomic stability and creating a fully functioning and open market economy. This strategy has paid off in terms of steadily increasing inflows. Privatisation is practically completed and one of the major challenges for future investment policy will be to attract more greenfield investment and to cope with international competition for FDI.
A recent OECD examination of Latvia’s FDI policies encouraged the Latvian government to actively pursue its economic reforms and dismantling of market access barriers on a non-discriminatory basis and to continue to find concrete solutions to administrative barriers faced by the foreign business community.
For more information, journalists are invited to contact Marie-France Houde, OECD's Directorate for Financial, Fiscal and Enterprise Affairs (tel. [33] 1 45 24 91 26).
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