Latvia’s Digital Transformation Guidelines for 2021-2027

Strategies and Action Plans

Author: Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia

The Digital Transformation Guidelines for 2021-2027 (Latvijas Digitālās Transformācijas pamatnostādnes 2021–2027) document outlines Latvia’s digital transformation strategy for 2021-2027. It sets specific goals, objectives, and action plans across five main areas of development:

1. Digital skills and education

This development area addresses the need to enhance digital literacy across society:

  • Goals:
    • Equip individuals with digital skills to actively participate in the digital economy.
    • Train educators and public sector employees to ensure widespread digital competency.
    • Provide advanced digital education tailored to specific industries (e.g. healthcare, research, public administration).
  • Challenges identified:
    • Insufficient digital skills among the population and workforce.
    • Limited ICT adoption in private enterprises.
    • Shortages of skilled ICT professionals.
  • Actions proposed:
    • Develop flexible and unified skills management systems to align digital education with labour market needs.
    • Promote lifelong learning initiatives.
    • Address inequalities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the digital divide between urban and rural areas.
  • The guidelines sets the following KPI  for Latvia in the digital skills area by 2027:
    • 70 % of citizens with at least basic digital skills
    • 45 % of citizens with the above basic digital skills
    • 3% of ICT specialists among employed

2. Digital security and trust

This area focuses on ensuring the security and reliability of digital infrastructures and services:

  • Goals:
    • Strengthen national cybersecurity frameworks and policies.
    • Promote secure digital identities and trust services.
    • Protect users against harmful online content and ensure consumer rights in digital environments.
  • Actions proposed:
    • Enhance mechanisms to combat cyber threats and improve data protection.
    • Expand the adoption of electronic identification systems.
    • Create public awareness campaigns to build trust in digital platforms.

3. Telecommunications and computing access

Ensuring widespread and equitable access to digital infrastructure:

  • Goals:
    • Achieve 99% broadband coverage with at least 100 Mb/s speed by 2027.
    • Ensure uninterrupted 4G coverage on national and municipal roads.
    • Promote the adoption of future-ready technologies like IPv6.
  • Actions proposed:
    • Invest in high-speed broadband infrastructure and improve network mapping.
    • Develop public-private partnerships to reduce connectivity gaps.
    • Support the rollout of 5G and next-generation mobile networks.

4. Digital transformation of the economy and public administration

This area focuses on modernising the economy and governance structures:

  • Goals:
    • Establish open digital service platforms for businesses and citizens.
    • Encourage the use of cloud services to enhance administrative efficiency.
    • Increase SMEs’ participation in e-commerce.
  • Challenges identified:
    • Latvian SMEs lag in integrating digital technologies compared to the EU average.
    • Limited use of data analytics and cloud computing among enterprises.
  • Actions proposed:
    • Promote data-driven decision-making by opening access to public datasets.
    • Support SMEs in adopting e-commerce and digital marketing strategies.
    • Develop digital tools for sectors like education, healthcare, and public safety.

5. Innovation in ICT industry and science

This area supports fostering innovation and advancing ICT research:

  • Goals:
    • Strengthen human resources and infrastructure for digital innovation.
    • Encourage collaboration between academia, industry, and the government.
    • Support experimental projects like autonomous vehicles and smart cities.
  • Actions proposed:
    • Invest in testbeds and regulatory sandboxes for emerging technologies.
    • Facilitate technology transfer to commercialise innovative solutions.

Future Scenarios

The strategy explores three potential future development paths:

  1. #Me 2.0 (iChoose):
    • Community-driven initiatives dominate.
    • Focus on personalised and localised solutions enabled by technology.
  2. Platform governments:
    • Governments act as central platforms, using advanced data integration to deliver services.
  3. Corporate connectors:
    • The dominance of large tech corporations raises issues around sovereignty and inequality.