Useful links

KEY CONTACTS
U.S. Embassy in Latvia: www.usembassy.lv
U.S. Ambassador to Latvia: Christopher Robinson
Deputy Chief of the Mission: Ruta Elvikis
Economic Officer: Andrew Byrley
Commercial Section of U.S. Embassy in Latvia www.buyusa.gov/latvia/

Latvian Investment and Development Agency
liaa@liaa.gov.lv
www.business.gov.lv
www.investinlatvia.org
www.exim.lv
www.liaa.gov.lv

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
pasts@mfa.gov.lv
www.mfa.gov.lv

Ministry of Economy
pasts@em.gov.lv 
www.em.gov.lv

IN THE U.S.
U.S. Department of Commerce: www.commerce.gov
U.S. Department of State: www.state.gov
Embassy of Latvia in the U.S.: embassy.usa@mfa.gov.lv; www.mfa.gov.lv/usa

ON THE U.S. MARKET
Investment and Development Agency of Latvia
The Investment and Development Agency of Latvia has compiled a useful information on economic and trade relations between Latvia and the U.S.

Select USA
A government program by the US Department of Commerce, which helps to ease attraction of investment for businesses in the US via foreign direct investment. Method: coordination between federal agencies to ensure efficient information flow, insights into regulatory system and connections of parties. 

World Integrated Trade Solution. Country Analysis
Visualization of country's imports and exports created based on World Bank data. Method: percentage based visualization of exports, imports of a country, and main product groups being traded. Additional data analysis and visualization are also provided, giving insight into the country's business environment, and products, services offered.

Small Business Administration
Independent agency of the federal government, which helps to set up and run small businesses in the US. Method: provide access to funding programs, loans; local assistance and counselling, business guiding. 

Trade Map
Visualization in the form of tables, graphs, maps of international trade data. Method: data gather about 220 countries and 5300 product groups that can be filtered out and portrayed visually.

Access Costs Everywhere
An interactive tool by the US Department of Commerce to assess the potential issues and costs of setting up and running a business. Method: analytical framework that helps to assess costs using links to public and private resources, case studies.

Cluster Mapping
Information gathering tool which creates region and industry specific clusters created by Harvard University in cooperation with the US Department of Commerce and US Economic Development Administration. Method: usage of 50 million data records to create summaries of data via data clusters.

CXL
A blog that based on research and process gives online optimization advice to companies. Method: research based blog post once per-week with insights about methods of optimizing own website and trends to take into account when doing so.

Google Keyword Planner
A Google tool that helps to research which are the most common keywords and search trends on Google. Method: the tool helps to analyze the occurrence of different search keywords, the trend developments through time, and the costs of an ad campaign on Google if certain keywords were used.

Google Trends
A simple market research tool by Google that helps to analyze current Google search trends (including region specific searches). Method: infographics created based on data gathered by Google, which reveal the occurrence of certain searches through time.