She explained that no growth could be promoted during the pandemic, but when the pandemic was over, the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis began. The LU professor emphasized that Latvia’s development went like waves, but the growth trend was upward.
“We say that we are lagging behind our neighbors. Yes, we are lagging behind, but we are not a poor country. This is another myth, along with the fact that Latvia has destroyed its industry. The share of industry, if we look at the added value, is 30%. Yes, There are more in Lithuania, but we cannot say that we have destroyed industry in Latvia,” said Šteinbuka.
She emphasized that the people of Latvia highly value not only the introduction of the euro, but also the security promoted by both NATO and the EU. The second benefit appreciated by society is the opportunity to travel freely, the third achievement is the availability of European funds. The LU professor pointed out that there have been good and not so good projects to learn EU funding, but if there were no European funds, the growth of the gross domestic product would be 8% lower on average per year.
“You can always look for something bad, but you have to look for the good. Looking to the future, one of our challenges is accelerating growth, which depends on investments, innovative projects. If we talk about investments, they can’t always be European funds. We can’t all our lives” “to sit on a needle” and be completely dependent on European funding, Steinbuk said.
