RIGA, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Latvia is determined to make life of entrepreneurs easier to raise its Doing Business ranking released annually by the World Bank Group, representatives of the Latvian Economics Ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry has drawn up a report on Latvia's progress in implementing a plan aimed to improve the Baltic country's business environment. The plan is intended to ensure that entrepreneurs in Latvia are provided with "simple and high-quality services", which means "more e-services".
According to the Economics Ministry's report, ten of the plan's 46 goals had been met by October 2017, four goals had lost their relevance and work on the remaining measures was going on.
The ministry's representatives indicated that most of the measures included in the plan, approved in 2017, are expected to influence Latvia's Doing Business score in 2019.
The planned improvements to Latvia's business environment include a transition to registering new businesses online at Latvia's government services website www.latvija.lv and reducing the price of registration. There is also a plan to ensure a digital submission and processing of documents necessary to receive building permits.
The process in which a limited liability company is transformed into a stock company will also be simplified.
Latvia hopes to secure a higher spot in the Doing Business ranking by introducing a zero-bureaucracy system in taxation and accounting and also by enhancing the electronic declaration system of the State Revenue Service.
In public administration, more digital solutions will be provided to promote business activity, including in cross-border business operations. Entrepreneurs, for instance, will be able to use electric identity cards issued in foreign countries, to receive Latvian e-services.
In 2017, Latvia slipped five positions in the Doing Business ranking, taking 19th place in the survey. Meanwhile, Latvia's neighbor Lithuania climbed five spots to 16th and Estonia remained 12th.
