According to the decision of the National Regional Development Council of 17 February 2006 regarding approval of the 1st reading of the NDP and submitting it for public discuss, the draft document was published in the newspaper Latvijas Vestnesis (The Official Gazette of the Government of Latvia) on 28 February 2006. This was the official announcement of the public discussion of the 1st reading of the NDP that lasted for 2 months and was closed in the beginning of May.
There were the following purposes of the public discussion:
- to ensure availability of information and involvement of as much as possible public in the open dialogue about the national development,
- to foster formation of perception of the NDP strategy, priorities and tasks to be settled, involving heads and participants of the NDP work groups, as well as independent experts in the discussions.
Target group – all Latvian population, especially (including) politicians, state and local government officials, non-governmental organizations, entrepreneurs, scientists, students, professors, teachers and journalists.
Events, participants and main results
By starting the public discussion a unified design and NDP logo were created that promoted popularization of the NDP as a document and public discuss as a campaign. A colour booklet “First Reading of the National Development Plan for 2007-2013” was printed in 7,000 copies (2,000 copies of them with reply paid envelopes for submitting the proposals). Short information and a calendar of main discussion events were printed in type of booklet in an edition of 3,000 copies. These materials were sent by post to libraries of higher education institutions, all local governments and secondary schools, as well as distributed to the participants of the public discussion events.
When starting the public discussion the NDP web page www.nap.lv was developed, where not only the text of the first reading, overview of the existing situation and other documents are available, but also information on the discussion process, structure of the NDP preparation work groups etc. There is an English translation of the 1st reading of the NDP available on the web page that came into being with the support of the Foreign Investors Council in Latvia.
In cooperation with the regional higher education schools and development agencies 10 regional conferences took place – in Jelgava, Daugavpils, Liepaja, Riga, Talsi, Valmiera, Rezekne, Ventspils, Bauska and Cesis. In total 695 people participated in the conferences, including all geographical regions of Latvia. A 3 hour limit provided for the event was not only completely used but sometimes even exceeded, since after the presentations intensive dialogues between the participants of the event and the participants of the NDP development group took place.
Huge interest on the 1st reading of the NDP was showed by Saeima deputies, discussing the draft NDP in 7 commission meetings, as well as by the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments, Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia and educational employees who arranged the NDP discussions on their own initiative inviting representatives and scientists of work groups to the discussions. The Ministry of Regional Development and Local Government (MRDLG) has received 32 electronic and 28 written letters with proposals and comments, as well as “Alternative NDP” prepared by the public organization JHVH.
In cooperation with the Public Policy centre Providus from 22 March until 7 April an on-line public discussion on the web page www.politika.lv took place. In total 90 invitations were sent, information was also placed on the web page studentnet.lv and sent to heads of approximately 1,000 pre-school, special and professional educational institutions, general education day and night schools as well as higher educational institutions. Public discussion was open to any interested party and until 11 April publications related to the NDP were read 12,300 times. Approximately 1,000 politika.lv users got acquainted with the discussion materials. There were 2 topics moved forward for the discussion: “Educated and creative personality” and the NDP implementation and supervision, regarding which 52 proposals and 78 comments were formulated.
In cooperation with the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry a businessmen discussion forum was arranged, with participation of 25 businessmen and representatives of sector associations, who expressed their opinion and proposals, and pointed out the risks that must be taken into consideration when developing the final reading of the NDP.
The first exhibition “Regional Development in Latvia 2006” that took place in the exhibition centre Kipsala on 20-22 April became an emotionally and contently saturated closing event of the NDP public discussion, during which everyone out of 6,000 visitors could get acquainted with 250 participants of the exhibition - expositions of companies, local governments and regions, including getting acquainted with the 1st reading of the NDP and expressing own opinion. Within the framework of the exhibition 3 conferences were arranged – on the NDP implementation and monitoring, legal capacity of local governments and regional development potential. The event was widely reflected on TV.
During the exhibition the conference forum took place, with participation of 120 participants:
Conference “What is necessary for the NDP implementation?”
Conference “Capacitated local governments”
Conference “Let’s develop Latvia together”
Conference and project presentation “Today’s achievement as investment for tomorrow”.
The NDP public discussion was widely reflected in the Latvian press and TV (shows “The Provinces” (“Province”), “What’s going on in Latvia?” (“Kas notiek Latvija?”), as well as TV7 (Latvian national television channel) broadcasts about the exhibition). Especially active discussion developed in the columns of national newspapers that almost every day published opinions of both journalists and other authors. Several “round table” discussions were arranged and widely reflected by newspapers in Russian language “Chas”, “SM” and “MK”. Not so active was regional mass media that confined themselves to publishing of information and opinion mainly about conferences that took place in the regions. Publications represented a wide range of opinions – from the utmost scepticism to constructive proposals and analytical assessment.
Conclusions
Public discussion of the 1st reading of the NDP passed successfully and proved that public is interested in and ready for discussing important national development issues. Goal and priorities set forth in the NDP, as well as the task – within next 7 years to achieve the turning point in education, science and economy in order to develop a stable intellectual and material base for a gradual increase of life quality – was penetrated and on the whole supported.
TOP 5 positive opinions
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For the first time an individual is the focus of attention
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New approach to the national development planning (first the strategy is offered but not the calendar of events; participation of officials, scientists, social partners and businessmen; inter-sector principle applied);
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Several turning points market out, including education set as priority
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Arrangement of the development planning, forecasting and analysis is provided for,
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There is a wide public discussion going on
TOP 5 negative opinions
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Vision of the national development is not defined and place of NDP among other documents is not clear;
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NDP is a strategy but not a plan (there are not specific events, responsible ones, financial plan, measurable results to be achieved, implementation mechanism). Several turning point marked out, including education set as priority;
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Not enough attention is paid to rural area development;
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Not clear polycentric development and regional priorities not set;
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Too low base level for science and education and insufficient capacity of the Ministry of Education and Science for such ambitious tasks.
Biggest concerns and risks
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Rapid development of Riga will deplete the regions even more (for example, in the human resource field)
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Frequent change of governments and lack of financing may endanger implementation of the strategy
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How to ensure implementation and supervision of NDP, as well as linkage to the action policy documents?
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Demographical risks (immigration, emigration policy, social integration issues).
