OREANDA-NEWS. During the meeting with Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Sir Suma Chakrabarti confirmed that in Latvia the EBRD plans to focus on business support projects.

The President of the EBRD confirmed that he plans to visit Latvia with this objective this year, in order to meet entrepreneurs and discuss concrete cooperation projects.

Discussing the current cooperation projects, incl. the EBRD participation in the capital of Citadale bank, V.Dombrovskis and S.Chakrabarti highly appreciated the accomplishments of the bank related to restoring the profitability and shared the opinion that in 2014, when Citadele will become a euro zone bank, its value will increase.

The two parties confirmed their readiness to progress towards returning the bank to the private sector pursuant to the EC's requirements. S. Chakrabarti confirmed that the EBRD is ready to support both, the scenario for attraction of a strategic partner and the alternative opportunity to list the bank on the stock exchange.

The officials also welcomed the former cooperation between Latvia and the EBRD. The EBRD has invested more than EUR 250 million in the Latvian economy through almost 70 different projects - mainly, investing the funds in the Latvian enterprises. V.Dombrovskis emphasized that Latvia highly appreciates the presence of the EBRD in Latvia and its support for economic growth, especially, in view of insufficient activity of the commercial banking sector in crediting the national economy.

V.Dombrovskis paid a visit to London with a view to meeting the management of the EBRD and participating in the forum “Invest in Latvia!” organized by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) and the Embassy of Latvia to the United Kingdom, telling about the investment environment and investment opportunities in Latvia. Today, V.Dombrovskis also participated in the seminar at the Institute of Directors, discussing with managers of the British companies the challenges and risks associated with Latvia's accession to the euro area and prospects for economic cooperation between Latvia and Great Britain.

Within the framework of the visit, the Prime Minister gave interviews to the newspapers Wall Street Journal, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the news agency Bloomberg.

During visit, the Prime Minister is accompanied by a delegation of entrepreneurs representing the fields of transport, logistics, finance, telecommunications, construction etc.