Currently, there is one project under consideration in the 'green corridor' of investment projects; however, in total, seven applications have been approved in the first months of the year with a total planned investment of 76 million euros, said Ieva Jāgere, director of the Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIAA), in an interview with the LETA agency.
In turn, in the special "green corridor" created last year for military investments, there are a total of 11 military production projects, with a total planned investment of 223 million euros, said Jāgere, emphasizing that more details cannot be disclosed.
In response to a question about whether these projects are comparable in scale to the planned ammunition production facility by the German company "Rheinmetall," Jāgere noted that "Rheinmetall" is undoubtedly the largest of the announced projects; however, there are projects that investors are willing to expand and develop further upon a successful start.
Jāgere also reminded that Latvia itself had to raise the bar for the requirements of projects entering the "green corridor," which provides expedited services for investors.
"Previously, we proactively included 600 enterprises in this 'green corridor' and realized that it doesn't work this way, as the 'green corridor' loses its meaning, and the institutions that are supposed to provide services began to warn about problems. At the beginning of this year, amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers' rules were approved, raising the criteria for entering the 'green corridor,' and now about 300 merchants meet these criteria," said Jāgere.
In response to a question about where the 'bottlenecks' arise in the faster servicing of investors, the head of LIAA acknowledged that it is most often related to environmental impact assessments and other permits related to environmental issues.
"These assessment processes are very complex, especially for large projects, and there are often insufficient human resources to conduct them, which is why the necessary speed cannot be ensured. Solutions need to be sought here. After all, investors, when asked what criteria influence their choice of country for investments, point to the speed of decision-making so that investments can be realized within certain timeframes," said the head of LIAA.
Since 2021, a total of 126 applications worth 8.6 billion euros have been approved in the 'green corridor.'
As previously reported, since 2021, merchants planning to implement investment projects in priority sectors can receive state services in the areas of construction, territorial planning, and migration on a priority basis, having obtained the corresponding status in LIAA.
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