OREANDA-NEWS  On 28 October was announced, that trade turnover between Belarus and Latvia may exceed USD 2 billion in 2008, Economy Minister Nikolai Zaichenko said during the IV Belarusian-Latvian Investment Forum.

“From the point of view of bilateral relations, the year 2007 was successful: we managed to push the mutual trade turnover to over USD 1.2 billion, and we expect a USD 2 billion trade turnover this year. We also need to work on diversification of cooperation areas,” Zaichenko said.

He went on to say that Latvia was among the top ten investors in Belarus, with USD 148 million of investment in 2007, up from USD 39 million in 2004.

Belarus has 210 companies with Latvian capital. Mutual trade expanded to USD 1.43 billion in January June 2008.