for which Silinya received a slap in the face from investors

If last year, having attributed some of the problems to the years of Covid and inflation, Latvia’s attractiveness for foreign investors might be described as mediocre, but this year the rating fell to “definitely bad.” The attractiveness of Latvia as a place for investment decreased sharply over the year – by 0.4 points, as a result a historical anti-record was set – 1.9 points on a five-point scale. Such a low rating has never happened before – historically, the lowest indicators of investment attractiveness were in 2016 and 2023, when, assessing the results of the previous year, investors gave a 2.3 rating to the work of the then governments of Laimdota Straujuma and Krisjanis Karins.

As foreign investors note, in Latvia there are long-term, unsolvable, persistent problems that hinder both Latvia’s competitiveness and the attraction of new investments – these are the inaccessibility of labor, low quality of education, high level of bureaucracy and the lack of mechanisms for attracting investment. In justifying the low rating, most investors emphasized the geopolitical situation, but also noted the lack of qualified labor, high labor costs and an ill-conceived regulatory framework. None of the problems mentioned are new – both foreign investors and Latvian business organizations point to them year following year, but, frankly speaking, almost nothing changes in the work of the government. “We want to see real changes from the government, and not just empty words and plans,” SIIL quotes a statement from a transport and logistics company. Many similar quotes can be found in the study.

Latvijas Avize, Latvijas Bizness