According to Bite, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the key is national security, which also includes economic security. As a secondary issue, entrepreneurs and residents also have to address the energy policy and Latvia's energy independence.
"At this point, as well as many others, it is very important how quickly and how operationally we will be able to cooperate with the country. It is no secret that my personal and the opinion of many entrepreneurs is that we have not done this very well so far. Because each of us, public administration and business, has lived in our own world. (..) And this crisis is perhaps the last moment to restart this story, start working as a united team to achieve key goals," Bite said.
"At the moment, we each have our own views. The Ministry of Finance thinks we have the best tax policy in the world, but we think it's the worst and most expensive policy in its labor tax section. Consequently, our call and requirement are to sit down and start modeling these things, debating and negotiating better solutions, rather than telling us what is better to do," said Bite.
According to him, cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development has been weak until now, but cooperation with the Ministry of Finance has been “tough.”
“Because the world is very vast and for a country the size of Latvia the only way for economic development can be exports. And exports must become our religion – whatever you do here, production must be export-oriented, and so we will be able to build our economic and population well-being,” said Bite.
