Strategic planning and management of national development processes in Latvia

Thanks to achieved productive collaboration of the highest level government institutions with the academic community experts, a national strategic planning system is shaping that is very significant for further development of Latvia. General principles of the system have been approved by the Law on Development Planning System. The conceptual document A Growth Model for Latvia: People First defines a knowledge‐based human‐centred development scenario. The National Development Plan has been approved as a mid‐term programme for implementation of the Model. To monitor progress towards the goal an integrated quantified quality of life index was developed; the index includes priorities essential for Latvia's population and it is based on objective statistical data. Polycentric development and strong cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region are priorities among strategic tasks that have been outlined to realize the growth. But the current two‐faced EU model cannot be evaluated as the most optimum and beneficial for development of Latvia as well as other EU Member States. First Publish Online: 14 Oct 201

Increasing Quality of Life for Everybody – the Basic Goal and Indicator of the Development Process

During elaboration of strategic development principles and their implementation in planning documents, the Saeima focused on increasing quality of life as the basic development goal. Welfare level, safety and sustainability are pillars of the quality of life concept. Quantitative criteria of the quality of life were developed to monitor the implementation of plans regularly and objectively. Criteria are integrated in the quality of life index. Assessment points out that a number of structural activities should be carried out on national, regional and municipal levels to achieve general increase of the quality of life throughout the country