Security, cutting red tape and economic development is Government's top priorities for year ahead - Rinkevics

RIGA - The most important tasks of the Government in the coming year will be strengthening national security, reducing bureaucracy and developing the economy, President Edgars Rinkevics said in an interview with TV3 on Thursday.

Rinkevics named three areas where he expects the Government led by Evika Silina (New Unity) to be more active next year. He mentioned security issues as the first, explaining that the civil protection system needs to be developed, the border needs to be strengthened, salaries in the interior affairs system need to be increased and other issues need to be addressed.

According to the President, bureaucracy in Latvia has grown significantly in recent years, and the Government should make efforts to reduce it.

Rinkevics also identified facilitating economic activity and economic development as the third important area of work, for example, the Government should think about how to facilitate lending and attract investment. There will also be a lot of hard work to be done in moving forward with the Rail Baltica project

In the President's assessment, the Silin0a government has demonstrated its capacity to act in the first 100 days, but the most positive achievements are the adoption of the budget, decisions on energy tariffs and some progress on human rights issues.

Speaking about the latest news - information provided by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs that at least 1,200 Russian citizens who have not complied with the requirements of the amendments to the Immigration Law and have not submitted documents to apply for a residence permit to reside in the country will be expelled from Latvia, the President refrained from assessing whether the number of those to be expelled is large or small, but stressed that the law must be complied with. "This is now a matter of principle," the politician added.

He admitted that it would be necessary to analyze in depth why such a large number of people living here had chosen to completely ignore the requirements of the law.