Latvian café manager calls for support instead of punishment for businesses

Entrepreneurs should be supported rather than punished, Riga café manager Vigo Valdavs told LSM ahead of Latvia’s 15th Saeima elections.

Valdavs said Latvia’s priorities should include reducing bureaucracy and changing state institutions so they focus more on people.

“You are sent from one institution to another, and in the end no one wants to take responsibility,” Valdavs said, describing his experience as a business owner and president of the Livonia rugby club.

He said Parliament should work to reduce the amount of paperwork businesses must handle. An ideal solution, he added, would be a one-stop agency where entrepreneurs could resolve the matters they need to address.

Valdavs said he was realistic and understood that it was impossible to “create paradise on Earth” in four years. However, he said changes could be made to the structure of institutions that supervise businesses so they focused on providing help rather than undermining and punishing companies.