The President of Latvia and the heads of local governments discussed issues regarding reforms in the education system, arrangement of regional-scale road network, support for business activity, problems of fractional ownership, the anticipated funding for projects of the European Union (EU), and issues about territorial distribution of the state authorities and potential future reforms.
The President of Latvia and the heads of regional local governments agreed on the need of unification of the territorial distribution of state authorities so that citizens and businesses could receive the necessary services and consulting in one place as much as possible. Raimonds Vējonis stressed that the territorial distribution of state authorities and availability of the required services were inextricably linked to the infrastructure required for creation of new jobs. Therefore, it was important to evaluate, which functions should be provided by regional development centres and which services should be kept approximated to residences of population by creating a more efficient public administration system.
“The issue on optimization of regional network of the state authorities is closely related to the plans on continuation of the administrative territorial reform by establishing new models of cooperation among local governments. However, I have already stressed regarding this issue that an assessment of the previous reforms must be carried out before any future reforms of local governments are implemented and one should rely on a thorough economic and social considerations analysis so that local governments could fulfil their statutory functions and availability of services would be ensured to the general public,” said the President of Latvia.
The President of Latvia also pointed to the necessity for arranging the regional road network and ensuring that the road infrastructure of already existing regions would be suitable for getting to the regional administrative centres. The President of Latvia also admitted that the reforms in the education system and start of implementation of the new teachers’ remuneration model were among the priority works to be undertaken by the next government.
The President of Latvia called on the heads of local governments to be persistent advocates of topical regional issues in the national politics. Meeting with the President of Latvia was attended by representatives from 20 regions, where regional development centres are located.