RIGA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Latvian President Egils Levits in his opening speech of parliament's autumn session on Thursday urged deputies and government ministers to give priority to education and science as they are the backbone of the economy.
"The parliament and the government must together seek solutions that would enable progress of the higher education and science. We have to create an excellent and far-sighted higher education system that would foster science, innovation and the economy," the president said.
"Education, science, innovation are the fundamentals of the economy," emphasized Levits who was a long-time judge at the European Court of Justice before being sworn in as Latvian president two months ago.
Competitiveness of Latvia's higher education establishments and their graduates has to be raised, and Latvian academics need to increase their participation in high-level international projects, the president said.
It is parliament's responsibility to adopt the decisions necessary to improve the governance and financing of higher education and science as well as to ensure closer ties between education and research, Levits noted.
