Valdis Dombrovskis: Rietumu izvēle ir Latvijas vienīgā alternatīva
Rietumu demokrātija un rietumu sabiedrotie ir vienīgā alternatīva Latvijai, uzrunā Eiropas Savienības lielākās un ietekmīgākās Eiropas Parlamenta politiskās grupas – Eiropas Tautas partijas (ETP) – sanāksmē „Virzot attīstību: risinājumi Latvijai, risinājumi Eiropai” uzsvēra VIENOTĪBAS līderis, Ministru prezidents Valdis Dombrovskis.
„Pirms 18 mēnešiem man tika mests izaicinājums vadīt Latvijas valdību krīzes laikā. Kopš šī brīža valdības prioritāte bijusi Latvijas starptautiskās konkurētspējas atjaunošana un starptautiskās uzticības atjaunošana mūsu valstij. Šajā nolūkā esam veikuši nozīmīgas ekonomiskas un sociālas reformas,” ETP sanāksmē pauda V. Dombrovskis.
V. Dombrovskis norādīja, ka šis uzdevums nav bijis viegls, divas no trim vadošajām reitingu aģentūrām Latvijai bija devušas zemākos kredītreitingus, turklāt iepriekšējās valdības nespēja valsts interesēs pieņemt nepopulārus lēmumus un draudēja izgāzt Starptautiskā Valūtas fonda palīdzības programmu. Lai atgūtu valsts konkurētspēju, viens no svarīgākajiem uzdevumiem bija Latvijas ekonomikas pārstrukturēšana no iekšējā patēriņā un nekustamā īpašuma tirgū balstītas ekonomikas uz eksportu orientētu ekonomiku, kas ir spējīga konkurēt kā Eiropas, tā pasaules līmenī.
Ekonomisko reformu pamatā bija valdības atbalsts uzņēmējdarbības, īpaši – augstu pievienoto vērtību radošus uzņēmumu un eksporta veicināšanai. Šim mērķim valdība ir īstenojusi trīs inovāciju veicināšanas programmas, kā arī iedzīvinājusi eksporta garantiju sistēmu. Galvenais finanšu instruments šiem mērķiem ir Eiropas Savienības fondu līdzekļi, norādīja V. Dombrovskis.
„Reformējot valsts pārvaldes sistēmu, mūsu mērķis bija izveidot mazu, efektīvu, uz klientu orientētu, profesionālu un caurskatāmu valsts administrāciju. Šajā laikā esam samazinājuši pašvaldību skaitu no 500 līdz 109, valsts iestrādēs strādājošo skaitu – par 30%, uz pusi samazinājuši valsts aģentūru skaitu, kā arī, ieviešot vienotā atalgojuma sistēmu, izlīdzinājuši algas valsts sektorā strādājošajiem,” uzrunā norādīja Ministru prezidents.
„Šobrīd, tuvojoties vēlēšanām, Latvijā ir partijas, kas mētājas populistiskiem saukļiem par ārvalstu finansiālu okupāciju. Taču vēlos norādīt, ka ar šādiem paziņojumiem nāk klajā tie politiskie spēki, kas vistiešāk ir atbildīgi par to finansiālo vājprātu, ko Latvija šajos gados ir pārdzīvojusi,” norādīja Dombrovskis. „Es ticu, ka Latvijas sabiedrība apzinās, ka rietumu sabiedrotie ir vienīgā Latvijas alternatīva. Austrumi mūsu valstij nav pareizais virziens,” savu uzrunu noslēdza Dombrovskis.
Iepazīstinot klātesošos ar galvenajiem Latvijas ekonomisko situāciju raksturojošajiem rādītājiem, ekonomikas ministrs Artis Kampars norādīja, ka pēdējo gadu laikā Latvijā ir notikušas nozīmīgas makroekonomiskas korekcijas, veicot pāreju uz ilgtspējīgu ekonomikas modeli, kura galvenais dzinējspēks ir eksports.
„Ja straujās izaugsmes gados galvenais ekonomikas dzinulis bija iekšējais pieprasījums, tad pašlaik tas ir eksports. Tā stabils pieaugums atsākās 2009. gada otrā pusē, kamēr iekšzemes pieprasījums pieauga tikai 2010. gada sākumā. Arī turpmāk galvenais faktors ekonomikas atveseļošanā būs eksports, kas jau vairākus mēnešus uzrāda augšupejošu tendenci. To pamatā nosaka gan pieaugošais ārējais pieprasījums, ko veicina globālās un galveno tirdzniecības partnervalstu izaugsmes atjaunošanās, gan Latvijas eksportētāju konkurētspējas palielināšanās. Palielinoties ieņēmumiem no eksporta, sagaidāms, ka situācija pakāpeniski uzlabosies arī iekšējā tirgū,” norādīja Kampars.
2. un 3. septembrī Rīgā norisinās Eiropas lielākās un ietekmīgākās Eiropas Parlamenta politiskās grupas – Eiropas Tautas partijas – sanāksme “Driving recovery: solutions for Latvia, solutions for Europe” (Virzot attīstību: risinājumi Latvijai, risinājumi Eiropai), kurā tiek diskutēts par ekonomiskās krīzes sekām, un ko Eiropa var mācīties no Latvijas pieredzes krīzes pārvarēšana un ekonomikas stabilizēšanā.
VIENOTĪBU veidojošās partijas Jaunais laiks un Pilsoniskā savienība ir Eiropas Tautas partijas biedri.
Politisko partiju apvienību VIENOTĪBA 2010.gada 6.martā nodibināja partijas „Jaunais laiks” (JL), „Pilsoniskā savienība” (PS) un „Sabiedrība citai politikai” (SCP). Apvienības uzdevums ir sākt Latvijas politisko un sabiedrisko spēku saliedēšanu, balstoties uz kopējām vērtībām un vienotu organizāciju. Apvienības mērķis ir radīt jaunu politisku kultūru Latvijā, platformu, uz kuras strādāt ikvienam Latvijas iedzīvotājam, kam svarīga pārticīga, godīga un eiropeiska Latvija.
Ministru prezidenta Valda Dombrovska runa angļu valodā:
Mr. Chairman,
dear colleagues,
ladies and gentlemen!
I am delighted that my group has chosen Riga for this bureau meeting. A warm welcome to you all, especially those visiting Latvia for the first time.
18 months ago the challenge was thrown into my hands to lead Latvia’s government in a time of deep crisis. I left my stable seat in the European Parliament and returned to Riga. Looking back, I remember the invaluable role of the European People’s Party and especially you, Mr Chairman. Thanks to your strong support, it was possible to accomplish difficult reforms and gradually restore international confidence in Latvia’s future. It is not an exaggeration to say that Joseph Daul was personally involved in saving Latvia from greater financial difficulty. I also have to mention the people of Latvia, who have shown surprising acceptance and patience for the major reforms they have endured.
Let me give a brief outline of the crisis and how the recovery is going:
As all of you probably know, during the past 5 years Latvia experienced a very rapid, some years even double digit, economic growth which ended in a double digit hard landing with –18% GDP in 2009. Such a figure is dramatic for peace time, but the worst in all this story was that we were victims of our own making.
During the boom years the Latvian government adopted loose fiscal policies, despite repeated strong warning signals about overheating from the European Commission and IMF. Latvia neglected these warnings. In fact, certain politicians called for ‘full-speed ahead’, ‘pedal to metal’ and so on.
As a result, during the boom years Latvia built up large economic imbalances. Capital inflows in the non-tradable sector caused the real estate bubble to balloon and accelerated inflation. Meanwhile, strong wage growth undermined the competitiveness of Latvian producers and stalled export growth. As a result, the current account reached a record deficit of 22.5% in 2007. Regrettably, no thought was given to building up reserves during the boom years.
And then the crisis hit. The global financial crisis at the end of 2008 amplified Latvia’s domestic imbalances, causing sharp economic contraction. GDP fell by 4.6% in 2008, after 10% growth in the previous year. GDP in 2009 was 22% down from 2007. Employment in 2009 was 12% down from the previous year.
All these features are pretty common to more than one country in Europe and elsewhere, but in Latvia, in addition to all the above mentioned, we had the run on the second largest Latvian commercial bank, Parex. Given that Parex was systemic bank, the Government had to intervene in order to avoid even bigger trouble for municipalities, thousands of enterprises and hundreds of thousands of depositors.
My government took power in March 2009 and one of its first tasks was to bring back the confidence of the international community in Latvia. That was not so easy a task, because two out of the three largest rating agencies have downgraded Latvia to the “junk” category. It’s easy to get there, but I can tell you how difficult is to get out of the hole.
By this time the IMF program was already running Latvia and due to the lack of political will and commitment to make unpopular steps, the program was on the verge of failure. As usual, the IMF programs come with very strong conditionality which require governments to commit themselves to substantial adjustment measures. We had to take the situation under control in a very speedy and decisive manner. Which we did.
From the beginning, we have been committed to major economic and social reforms. As I used to say, and I am already quoted saying this, “ Reforms start where the money ends” .
Regaining national competitiveness was set as the over-arching priority. Here, we had a double objective. Short-term competiveness meant improving ratings by the largest international rating agencies as soon as possible. In parallel, we had to restructure from an inward looking economy, based on real estate and local services, towards an export-oriented economy able to compete on the European and global stage.
To boost national competitiveness, we have chosen structural reforms based on three pillars – economy, social system and public sector.
Economic reform is happening mainly through EU Structural Funds, as no other financing was available for stimulating growth. The aim of our activities is to support enterprises in increasing the value-added of their production, as well as their ability to export. To achieve this objective, we have put in place programs promoting innovative products and services, as well as export credit guarantee schemes. On a more macroeconomic policy level, although the margin of manoeuvre is rather limited due to our commitments towards international lenders, we are looking at reshaping our tax system in the medium term.
One of the features of the Latvian social system was poor accessibility and inefficient targeting of social benefits. My government has put in place an Emergency safety net, keeping a focus on active labour market programs and reviewing the benefit system.
In the health sector, the main features are quality and accessibility of health services, reorganisation of healthcare institutions, and reform of the network of in-patient service providers.
In education we are focusing on improving efficiency and eliminating overcapacity (too many teachers per one student). Another feature is introduction of per-student financing or the principle “ money follows the student”.
Finally, concerning the public sector our goal is to establish a small, efficient, client–oriented, professional and transparent public administration. The emphasis is on assessing which functions and programmes should continue to be financed by the State budget, which can be reduced and which can be delegated to NGO’s, the private sector or simply eliminated. The same goes for state-owned enterprises.
On top of these measures, we have carried out a territorial reform, reducing the number of municipalities from around 500 to 109. The measures taken were unprecedented: we have reduced the number of public employees in central government by 30%, the number of agencies was cut by 50%, salaries in public sector were cut, putting emphasis on higher level salaries. A unified pay system was introduced in the public sector. The total amount of hospital beds per 100 000 inhabitants decreased to 493 in 2010 from 746 in 2008. While this KPI is still higher than the best performers in Europe (Scandinavian countries), we are still moving towards the EU average. These are just some figures to show you the scale of measures we have taken.
Certainly, cutting government expenditure is absolutely necessary, but this will not earn your daily bread. Latvia as a small and open economy can be pulled out of the crisis only by exporting more, which means becoming more efficient and competitive. The second step after fiscal consolidation was to change our economic model from an inwards looking and real estate and local services based economy to a production based export oriented economy. The only resources we had to accomplish this were EU structural funds, which were redistributed to increase energy efficiency, competitiveness of enterprises and development of new innovative and high value added products.
Besides financial stimulus, we are systematically working on eliminating the red tape and bureaucratic barriers to business local and foreign direct investment. We have adopted the micro-enterprise support program to stimulate economic activity. Also we are putting in place a broad investment promotion program called “Polaris” , and a high level Investment Support Council chaired by myself was established last month. This council will intervene in case of large investment projects in order to speed up and prepare important government decisions regarding major investment projects.
All these measures are bearing first results. The first two quarters of 2010 have seen modest but still positive GDP growth after 8 quarters of recession, export grew by 23% in first half of this year. Due to salary cuts of around 24% in the public sector followed by the private sector, unit labour costs are down by 21% since 2008 which strongly contributes to the increased competitiveness of the Latvian economy.
Now, as the elections are approaching, some parties are making populist statements about challenging the international lenders and ending the so-called ‘financial occupation’ of Latvia. This is a cheap line, coming from those who were mainly responsible for the financial mess. I believe that most people in this country understand that the only alternative source of loans comes from the east, and this is not the right direction for Latvia to take. Let me assure you that my party, ‘New Era’, together with our partners in the ‘Unity’ group, are determined to uphold Latvia’s international commitments, and the path of reform which is evidently working. I thank you, dear colleagues and friends, for coming to Riga to show your support once again, and look forward to working closely with you for many years to come.
Thank you.