Latvia signed with China an inter-governmental memorandum of understanding of cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in November 2016, becoming the first country in the Baltic Sea area to sign such a memorandum to link up with BRI.
Political system
Latvia is a parliamentary republic with a head of government - the prime minister - who chooses the council of ministers and a head of state - the president - who has a largely ceremonial role and nominates the prime minister. The government remains subject to Parliament's approval throughout each term. The country is subdivided into 110 one-level municipalities and 9 cities. These have their own city councils and municipal administrations.
Trade and economy
The most important sectors of Latvia's economy in 2018 were wholesale and retail trade, transport, accommodation and food services (25.4 percent), industry (16.1 percent) and public administration, defence, education, human health and social work activities (15.8 percent).
Intra-EU trade accounts for 67 percent of Latvia's exports (Lithuania 15 percent, Estonia 11 percent and Germany and Sweden 7 percent), while outside the EU 14 percent go to Russia and 4 percent to the United States.
In terms of imports, 75 percent come from EU Member States (Lithuania 17 percent, Germany 11 percent and Poland 9 percent), while outside the EU 8 percent come from Russia and 4 percent from Canada.
Source: https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries/member-countries/latvia_en
A single purchase
