About 100 Belarusian companies turned to the Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIAA, LIAA) for advice on business relocation. Such figures were announced by the head of department Kaspars Rozhkalns. Several companies are major players in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry.
According to him, ten of them are ready to move specifically to Latvia, but the majority are also considering alternative options, which requires prompt decisions from officials.
Rožkalns noted that his agency is working closely with the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA), the Border Guard Service, financial supervision and other agencies to develop a unified roadmap for businessmen.
Earlier, LIDA announced the creation of a special group that will provide operational support to Belarusian investors wishing to move their business to Latvia. In particular, the assistance includes accelerated processing of papers for start-up visas and temporary residence permits (permits) for highly skilled workers and their families.
According to Rožkalns, Latvia is particularly interested in the relocation of enterprises from the medium and high technology, IT, bioeconomy, smart technologies, biomedicine and other sectors. However, given the current situation, Latvia is open to companies from any industry.
Also, the Ukrainian authorities announced the acceleration of the decision to issue a residence permit to IT-specialists from Belarus.
In addition, about 20 IT companies from Belarus are moving to Lithuania.
Recall that on August 9, presidential elections were held in Belarus. According to the CEC of the republic, more than 80% of the voters supported the incumbent leader Alexander Lukashenko. For the main competitor – Svetlana Tikhanovskaya – about 10% of voters cast their votes. The opposition has not recognized the results of the elections and holds regular demonstrations. The largest rallies are held on Sundays in Minsk and gather hundreds of thousands of participants. Lukashenka’s victory was also not recognized by many countries of the world, including the EU states, Canada and the UK. EU countries are going to impose personal sanctions against officials involved in electoral fraud and forceful actions against protesters.