OREANDA-NEWS. On the 20th of November Expocentre Fairgrounds hosted a meeting of the Russia-Latvia Business Council (RLBC).

The co-chairmen of the meeting were Pyotr Aven, the President of Alfa-Bank and Vasily Melnik, Vice President of the Latvian Employers' Confederation.

Alexandr Veshnyakov, the Russian Ambassador to Latvia, took part in the meeting of the council and noted a successful development of foreign economic relations between the two countries. He informed this year the expected turnover growth between Russia and Latvia would amount to 25%; as a result, the mutual trade turnover would reach 11 billion dollars.

President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexandr Shokhin who was present at the meeting said that on the threshold of the regular meeting of the Russia-Latvia Intergovernmental Commission, the activity of RLBC would help to form an integrated opinion of Russian and Latvian businessmen on the key problems hindering the development of cooperation between the two countries.

In the course of the meeting the participants negotiated such relevant topics as regulation of customs clearance, automobile transport connections between Russia and Latvia, certification of Latvian farmers' products in Russia. The issues on cross-border cooperation and development of trade and economic relations with different Russian regions were also discussed.

Russian and Latvian entrepreneurs made presentations of the projects attractive for collaborative work.

Representatives of Russian and Latvian parties exchanged ideas about possibilities for cooperation in the field of culture, science and education.