The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže, together with the Director of the Institute of Electronics and Computer Science, Dr Modris Greitāns, will sign the Memorandum on the Development of Quantum Technologies in Latvia. This will bring the number of partners that have joined the Memorandum up to 13.
The event will take place on Thursday, 18 July at 10:00 a.m. at VAS “Latvia State Radio and Television Centre” (LVRTC) in the Riga Radio and Television Tower techno-administrative building on Zaķusala. Media opportunities: TV, photo, interviews. Contacts for application: LVRTC e-mail sanita.abrate@lvrtc.lv (t.: +371 25660663).
By joining the Memorandum of Understanding on the Development of Quantum Technologies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will contribute to raising the visibility of Latvia’s success on an international scale. The Foreign Ministry will also support involvement by Latvia in international cooperation mechanisms in the EU and NATO framework, which will help the partnership of the Memorandum of Understanding and the members of the Latvian Quantum Initiative to build a common understanding of the development and standardisation of quantum mechanics in allied countries.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže: “Quantum technologies in Latvia have a great potential for growth and innovation, and we possess the knowledge and experience to become a test and development environment for emerging technologies. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Latvian diplomatic and consular missions abroad – 38 embassies and 167 honorary consuls – have already been promoting Latvia’s academic and applied achievements in quantum technologies. The Memorandum will enable partners to gain a common understanding of the existing knowledge and opportunities, and foster sustainable cooperation in order to jointly help develop quantum technology in Latvia, promote achievements internationally and attract cooperation partners. In view of that, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is acceding to the Memorandum of Understanding.”
One of the most important directions for the development of quantum technologies is the security sector. With the advent of quantum computers to the market, existing encryption principles will be under threat. In preparation for the “quantum era”, researchers are intensively creating new data encoding algorithms and modifying, testing, and adapting communication channels for quantum photon streams. At this point, a national level quantum communication infrastructure and network creation project is also being implemented in Latvia with the aim of supporting knowledge, skills, technologies and ideas related to practical applications of quantum mechanics, as well as other projects with quantum technology applications. A quantum network for the use of secure services is expected to be available to public sector institutions, businesses and individuals in Latvia as early as by the end of 2025.
In the field of quantum research in Latvia, the academic sector, industry and public administration have already been successfully cooperating in order to create and implement innovations. Latvia has earned international renown in various fields of quantum technologies, including quantum algorithms, quantum sensors, quantum communications, and nanoelectronics.
Latvian scientists – tenured Professor Andris Ambainis and Professor Mārcis Auziņš – already rank among the world’s most recognized scientists in the development of quantum algorithms and quantum sensors. For their part, Evijs Taube, Leo Trukšāns from the Latvian State Radio and Television Centre, Jurģis Poriņš from Riga Technical University, “Tet” company, as well as scientists from the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the University of Latvia are actively working in the field of quantum communications. Vjačeslavs Kaščejevs, tenured Professor at the University of Latvia, has achieved international prominence in the area of quantum nanoelectronics.
About the Memorandum of Understanding on the Development of Quantum Technologies
Experts, scientists, representatives of the ICT industry and policy makers signed the Memorandum on 19 October 2023, at the 5G Techritory international forum in Riga. Eleven cooperation partners have currently joined the memorandum.
The Memorandum provides for the promotion of the international competitiveness of Latvia’s high technologies in the field of quantum technologies, including: (1) the development of local competence and innovations; (2) creating, developing and sharing a test environment for technological solutions; (3) supporting the creation, adaptation and coherent development of innovative solutions for quantum technologies; (4) promoting cooperation between the academic sector and industry in order to intensify knowledge transfer in the Latvian economy; (5) arranging joint meetings at least four times a year to discuss the status of current initiatives, ongoing projects and joint activities in the development of quantum technologies.