Former Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma noted in an interview with the program Latvija 2035 that the future of Latvia cannot be an economy with low added value. According to her, the only way is to develop high technologies and act more wisely.
She stated that the perceptions of the 90s about Latvia as a "bridge between East and West" or a "banking paradise" have exhausted themselves and turned out to be erroneous, so now it is time to purposefully invest in areas where Latvian scientists of world-class work. "We cannot geographically become larger, but we can become smarter," emphasizes Straujuma.
The former prime minister expressed cautious optimism regarding reforms in the education system, placing special emphasis on the transition to institutional funding in universities, which will allow for a more rapid adaptation of curricula to market demands: "This will help reduce the bureaucratic burden, which usually causes the approval of new programs to take years. Universities are already seeing new training opportunities, and the government must remove obstacles so that knowledge can be quickly transformed into real economic achievements."
One of the main obstacles to development, Straujuma believes, is excessive bureaucracy, which is often fueled by the public's fear of taking responsibility: "Bureaucrats and heads of institutions usually require new regulations for every life situation, instead of making bold decisions themselves. As soon as we encounter a problem, we do not take responsibility, but demand written regulations.
