In November, the government of Latvia approved the country’s third Open Government Partnership action plan. Among its 12 commitments are sharing government data on the country’s new open data portal, and using surveys on administrative burden and customer satisfaction to cut bureaucracy to zero (“Nulles birokrātiju”).

To reduce red tape, Latvia wants to overhaul and minimise regulation - to ‘interfere only where it is needed’ - while involving citizens to take decisions that are in the public interest, according to the OG Action Plan Latvia.

In the document the government also pledges to show and explain public spending, and to further improve and clarify public procurement.

This summer, Latvia launched its open data portal, where the government intends to aggregate its data.

In its statement, the Latvian government announced the creation of a new portal to circulate draft legislative proposals. Latvia will also overhaul the web site of its statistics agency.

Two subsequent drafts of Latvia’s third OGP action have been open for public comments, and the document has also been discussed with social partners.

More information:

Announcement by the Latvian cabinet
Latvia’s Third National Action Plan for Open Government Partnership (PDF)