Latvian residents believe that the quality of work of the state authorities should be improved for the development of the country, according to a public opinion poll conducted by Rait Custom Research Baltic and commissioned by the State Chancellery.
The survey included open-ended questions, asking respondents to answer in free form “what would make Latvia prouder as a country than it is today” and “what Latvia should do to get ahead of Lithuania and Estonia”.
The results show that the answers to both questions are broadly similar. The most mentioned topic of residents is related to the state power, the need to improve its quality, including improvements in the work of the Parliament and the government, transparent and fair policy-making, and reducing wastefulness and bureaucracy.
The need for politicians to care more about the people and the future of the country, to change politicians and to reduce salaries of MPs and ministers was also frequently highlighted in the survey, according to the pollsters.
In addition, the two most frequently mentioned themes in the survey, which in the opinion of the population would contribute to the development of Latvia, were economic development, such as reaching the level of European and Western countries, support for entrepreneurs, tourism and production development, job creation, infrastructure development, attraction of investments, development of new technologies, as well as raising the level of welfare – increasing salaries and pensions, increasing benefits, support for children and families with children, reducing prices, as well as reducing income inequality.
Respect for human rights, the rule of law and the need to clean up tax policy also featured in the survey, among other topics mentioned by at least 5 percent of respondents.
The survey was carried out in June this year among 1,005 respondents – permanent residents of Latvia aged between 18 and 75.
Source: BNS
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