Today, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with Finance Minister Arvils Ašeradens at the Riga Castle to discuss government and parliament’s progress with consolidated budget, current macroeconomic challenges and European Union (EU) financial sector matters. Finance Minister briefed President about the progress with adoption of consolidated budget. Planning is influenced by current challenges, need to curb inflation and predictions about short-term economic recession.
Egils Levits and Arvils Ašeradens both underlined the role of responsible authorities in strengthening national defence and internal security with additional funding allocated in the national budget. Both officials agreed that it is necessary to invest in these dimensions, also civil protection, in the current geopolitical environment.
President Levits focused at great length on government support for development of research and innovations, also the amount of funding earmarked for these purposes. ‘I want to reiterate: support for higher education, research and innovations is crucial for economic transformation of Latvia and will be decisive in how successfully we develop as a state,’ Egils Levits stressed.
President of Latvia praised Minister of Finance for establishing a ministerial commission for monitoring EU investments at the national level. It is important for Latvia to use all funding available for eliminating gaps across different areas, Egils Levits underlined. ‘We need to act fast, be efficient to avoid missing out on EU funding available for Latvia. Missing out on funding available to us would be utterly unacceptable,’ President said.
Meeting also focused on Finance Minister’s plans for development of national capital market. President Levits thanked Minister Ašeradens for clear vision for capital market activation and thus add momentum to national and societal development.
