Creating a 21st Century NationalInnovation System for a 21st Century Latvian Economy

Watkins, Alfred ; Agapitova, Natalia

World Bank, Washington, D.C.

关键词: AGRICULTURE;    AUDITS;    BENCHMARK;    BENCHMARKING;    CAPITAL FORMATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-3457
RP-ID  :  WPS3457

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The Latvian economy made great stridesin recovering from the economic shock of the earlytransition and the adverse aftereffects of the 1998 Russianfinancial crisis. Nevertheless, Latvia faces seriouschallenges to its future growth and prosperity despite theseimpressive achievements and the outward appearance ofmacroeconomic stability and economic progress. A widevariety of recent studies suggest that the Latvian economyis not particularly competitive and, even more worrisome,they indicate that Latvia is not well positioned to gainground in the race for global competitiveness, prosperity,and rising standards of living. Most of Latvia's growthto date has come from one-off gains generated by structuralreforms, privatization, and reallocating resources, notinexhaustible reservoirs of growth. Latvian enterprises willbe able to sustain economic growth and create high wage jobsonly by becoming internationally competitive, innovating,accumulating new knowledge and technology, and finding ahigh value added niche in the European and global divisionof labor. This paper is designed to help Latvian leadersdevelop a clear diagnosis of the innovation andcompetitiveness challenges facing Latvia as it prepares toenter the EU and, more important, design and implementpolicies and programs to ensure that Latvia reaps themaximum possible benefits from EU structural funds. SectionII analyzes the current structure of Latvia'sproduction, imports, and exports. Section III uses data froma number of competitiveness reports to benchmarkLatvia's current progress against a number ofcomparator countries and to pinpoint Latvia's strengthsand weaknesses as an innovative economy. Section IV offers adetailed list of potential policies and programs that couldimprove the competitiveness of Latvian enterprises and theefficiency of the Latvian National Innovation System. Therecommendations include specific policies and programs toimprove (1) the production of knowledge in Latvia, (2) thecommercialization of technology produced by Latvianscientists, small companies, and research institutes, and(3) local firms' capacity to absorb, adapt, and adoptexisting knowledge produced outside Latvia for use inside Latvia.