After a rollercoaster ride, inward investment into the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is beginning to judder to a halt. All three nations understand that it is extremely important to their economic recovery to get investment flowing again and that innovation and skills development will be the key.
Although outsiders tend to lump the states together as a single entity, the relationship between each is extremely competitive, not least in the sphere of foreign direct investment (FDI). Nonetheless, they share some common characteristics. Ralff Dakters of the Latvian Investment and Development Agency says that the "strategic marker" for the region was 2004, during which all three states acceded to the EU, putting clear blue water between the Baltic states and the former Soviet Union. It marked, he says, "a dramatic increase in FDI," which peaked in 2006 and 2007.
