DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC THEORY – FROM THEORIES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TO THE PARADIGM OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Rapid economic growth is a relatively recent phenomenon, which has been examined since the end of the 18th century. In the scientific literature researchers use the concept of “economic growth” and “economic development” when analyzing economic processes. “Economic growth”, as defined by Paul M. Romer occurs whenever people use resources and rearrange them in more valuable ways. Thus, economic growth means an increase in a real national income / national output. In contrast, economic development is an improvement of the quality of life and living standards, e.g. improvement of literacy, life expectancy, and approach to environmental issues. Economic development encircles a wider range of metrics than just gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, it is about actual standard of living, level of environmental standards, availability and quality of housing and other aspects. The article analyzes, compares and evaluates theories of economic growth and economic development in the context of sustainable development

Methodological perspective of evaluation of Green public procurement

Every year the European Union (EU) Member States collectively spend around 14% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on public procurement. In Latvia, public procurement accounts for 17% of GDP. The review of the new public procurement directives and their transposition process in Latvia plans to show new opportunities for green public procurement (GPP) application: the contracting authority will be able to reject, for example, an abnormally low bid, include environmental management system requirements in the selection criteria, use life cycle costing criteria, etc. GPP is the systematic integration of environmental criteria into all activities related to the procurement of goods or services, from the identification of needs, the development of appropriate specifications and evaluation procedures, to the monitoring of the results achieved. Solutions for the promotion of GPP proposed by the new Public procurement Law project and the Cabinet of Ministers' draft regulation "Requirements and Application of Green Public Procurement" will also be analyzed. The aim of the work is to explore the application of GPP to improve the quality of GPP

Electronic procurement system – instrument for implementing green public procurement: analysis of the Latvia’s expierence

Green public procurement (GPP) is a mean of saving up finances for public institutions, especially taking into consideration not only procurement price but also total expenses of the contract lifecycle. In Latvia the first Electronic Procurement System (EPS) was established in 2005 and was the first such procurement system in the Baltic States. Initially, it only acted as an e-Procurement system in which public institutions can purchase standard goods and services. This paper analyzes the success of the implementation methodology for evaluating e-Procurement in public procurement. The aim of the paper is to explore the proportion of applied GPP of total procurement in EPS in Latvia in the period from 2015 to 2017, and to analyze how the aims of the proportion of GPP are achieved. In order to investigate the share of GPPs in the EPS, data on purchases made by EPS was collected and analyzed. An analysis was made of the percentage of GPP and the most important groups for which GPP was appropriate, and it was assessed whether the objectives set by the GPP have been achieved. GPP proportion in procurement made within the EPS in 2015 was 9%, 2016 - 8%, but in 2017 - 19.10%, which means that GPP a substantial increase. As the calculations made in the study prove a complete transition to e-Procurement will reduce both administrative costs and significant savings for the state budget in the Latvia

When is Green Really Green? A Latvian Case Study on Updating of Food Supply Green Public Procurement

Green public procurement (GPP) is an important tool and is used to reduce adverse environmental impacts caused by food production. To have a more detailed look at the application of GPP in Latvia, the authors screened 97 public tenders for supply of food products, documenting the choice of the green criteria. Only 15 % of the screened tender documents corresponded to the national GPP requirements. Only 4 % of the tender documents gave higher priority exclusively for organic products compared to products within national quality schemes or integrated pest management agriculture. The authors compared these findings with the opinions of environmental experts, GPP guidelines by the European Commission, and experience from other countries. The authors conclude that 1) self-reporting is not an appropriate method to measure the implementation level of GPP, and 2) having a large number of criteria without clear goals can lead to using the easiest, but least environmentally beneficial options, and 3) for some tenders complying with national GPP, the environmental benefits may be unclear