Update July 2000: Latvia

The major changes in Latvia took place on May 2000 when the new government was established and the Prime Minister - Andris Berzins and the new Cabinet of Ministers was approved.

The key positions concerning the Information Society development in Latvia stayed the same. The main governmental structure responsible for communications and information policy is the Ministry of Transport: http://www.sam.gov.lv. Previous Minister of Transport was not replaced and Anatolijs Gorbunovs occupies this position currently. The key positions in the Department of Information also stay the same (director of the department Andris Virtmanis).

The Adviser of the Prime Minister in the previous government Dr. Edvin Karnitis changed his position and is now assistant to the Minister of Economy.

Some new organisations and people were included in the ESIS database during last three months together with the new IS projects. Mainly there are people working in the organisations related to environment protection and nature resource care. Two IS projects concern these fields; "Development of Unified Environment Data Information System" (Latvian Environment Data Centre of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development – project manager Ilgmars Lustiks) and "Establishment and Development of Fisheries Administration and Control System" (State Fishery Board of the Ministry of Agriculture – project manager Normunds Riekstins).

In most cases people involved in IS-activities in Latvia represent organisations traditionally active in this field. During the last three months a number of IS promotion activities took place where organisations and people took part who already are included into the database through previous actions. Among them: FEMIRC Latvia with Information Day "IST Prize 2001" and DT Media with The 4th International Conference "Information Technologies and Telecommunications in the Baltic States" and with The international IT&T and office equipment exhibition "Baltic IT&T ‘2000". Ministry of Economy and Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia have also been involved in promotion activities during the last quarter.