Analytics, Economics, Financial Services, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Wages

"As Latvia marks its centenary this year, everyone in Latvia should feel improvement in national as well as personal well-being. The government must keep working to speed up economic growth in Latvia. Our goal is to achieve that every third employee in Latvia gets more than EUR 1,000 in monthly wages," Economics Minister Arvils Aseradens (Unity) said, when discussing the ministry's priorities with Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis (Greens/Farmers) on January 19th.

Other priorities include measures to increase availability of housing to families with children and young professionals as well as improvements to the mandatory purchase component system in the power generation to ensure transparency of the system and to eliminate possible fraud.

"This year we also plan to take several measures to facilitate transition of the Latvian economy to a more advanced economic model by encouraging financial technology and digitalization of public services as well as cooperation of startups with universities and corporations," Aseradens said.

Investments in Latvia grew last year with Latvia receiving over 35% of total investments in the Baltic region. The Economics Ministry has created a new unit for attracting foreign investments and adopted a new approach to this end.

As regards innovation, the ministry will continue implementing the EU-funded programs to strengthen the innovation capacity and working on development of the startup ecosystem and innovations in energy.

The Economics Ministry will keep supporting participation of Latvian companies in major international trade fairs with the aim to boost exports and help businesses to expand to distant markets such as the United States and China.