To promote productivity and competitiveness of the economy of Latvia, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recommends strengthening powers of the Competition Council of Latvia (the CC) and providing sufficient funding for recruitment of qualified specialists in its Economic Survey of Latvia, published on 29 May.
On 29 May of this year, the Secretary General of the OECD Angel Gurría and representatives of the OECD had a visit in Latvia in order to present the Economic Survey of Latvia and the Environmental Performance review of Latvia.
Angel Gurría, the Secretary General of the OECD, emphasized, that Latvia should strengthen the Competition Council, so that it could “efficiently address monopolies, oligopolies, duopolies and all other “polies””, because strong competition improves productivity and economic performance, and also reduces prices, which, in its turn, brings benefits to consumers. It is indicated in the report of the OECD, that the Competition Council should become stronger in its capabilities and should be provided with more powerful instruments to be able to control activities of public administrative bodies.
The Chairwoman of the CC Skaidrīte Ābrama: “In April, I participated in the examination organised by the Economic and Development Review Committee of the OECD and I was surprised that experts of the OECD had assessed that the Competition Council has the smallest budget compared to other equivalent competition authorities in developed countries. Also, the ECN+ Directive states that competition authorities shall be provided with sufficient resources, as well as independence during the decision-making and investigation process, in order to be able to fulfil obligations entrusted to them qualitatively, thus strengthening the economic environment in Latvia. I hope, that such calls of the OECD and the European Commission will finally be heard in our state.”
In the Economic Survey of Latvia there is analysed the economic situation of Latvia and experts of the OECD gave recommendations for ensuring more sustainable growth of the economy of Latvia. According to the practice of the OECD, such reports are published once every two years.