Speech of president of Latvia Valdis Zatlers at the conference “Latvia. Growth. Prosperity.”

“Despite these difficult times, I know that we have also the companies and business ideas, to be proud about. And it is a myth that the Latvian industry is ruined. There are many entrepreneurs in Latvia which have proved that they “can” – can create excellent products, can generate original ideas and can implement them both in Latvia and abroad. There has been a lot of talk that we need to find our “Nokia” or our “Skype”. But the truth is that we do not have a shortage of our own “Nokia”s already at present – even if they are very small in the world context.

I often ask both to the parliament members and to the people, do you know about one or another business, which successfully operates? Did you know that such a giant as “Microsoft” has chosen Latvian commercial equipment manufacturer “Vitrum” as supplier for its trade stands in Europe? That ship propeller blades for Rolls – Royce engines are manufactured in Latvia? That the same “Microsoft” has chosen Latvian company’s “Nexum Insurance Technologies” products as a partner solution for its software in Eastern European financial industry? And so we could continue over and over again. There are not so few of those small, efficient businesses in Latvia.”

Conference in institution of higher education “Turība” was organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, August 26, 2009.

Full text (in Latvian):
http://www.president.lv/pk/content/?cat_id=1686&art_id=14268