During the today’s “Functionary shadows an entrepreneur” initiative, 99 functionaries from 30 national regulatory authorities get familiarised with daily work of 35 companies.
“I appreciate the willingness, courage and dare of entrepreneurs – the interest of 35 companies and their willingness to show their daily work to functionaries is an excellent result! Public administration and, in particular, business supervisors should become more open and customer-oriented. As part of the initiative, entrepreneurs will be able to receive advice and practical assistance directly from functionaries, as well as to make recommendations to improve the business environment. The initiative will also strengthen the application of the “Consult first” principle in supervision even more, will encourage dialogue between the state and the economic operator and reduce the administrative burden. Only together can we create a business environment in Latvia that will facilitate the formation of new companies and the expansion of existing ones,” emphasises Ralfs Nemiro, the Minister of Economics.
The “Functionary shadows an entrepreneur” initiative is organised in Latvia for the first time. The purpose of the initiative is to enable the developer of laws and regulations to assess the functioning of the legislation developed by them as an implementer directly in the user’s place. Within the framework of the initiative, the functionary means any public administration employee (not just an official).
Līga Meņģelsone, the Director General of the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia: “By active involvement in Shadow Day, employers have confirmed that they are ready to cooperate in order to promote a common understanding of day-to-day work in business. This would not only ensure more productive communication, but also create sustainable development of the national economy. We wish the newly established tradition to continue in the coming years.”
Jānis Endziņš, the Chairman of the Board of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, emphasises: “We have to stop dividing people into those who work in business and those who work in public administration. The only “medicine” is cooperation, so this project directly focuses on promoting mutual understanding of what happens every day. The first “Functionary shadows an entrepreneur” has already come and we hope for many good lessons!”
During the initiative, the entrepreneur may receive advice from the representative of the national authority or the functionary, as well as receive feedback on the solution of a problem. The entrepreneur can also propose the necessary improvements to the regulation, thereby getting involved in the process of development and improvement of Latvian and European Union legislation.
Functionaries, on the other hand, have the opportunity to assess the functioning of the created regulation directly from the user’s position, thereby improving the outcome of their work. At the same time, it is an opportunity to gain new experience, to extend own range of vision, “to step into entrepreneur’s shoes” and to assess how the regulation is applied in practice and what needs to be improved in future work.
As you know, the prototype of the initiative was developed by the Public Administration Innovation Laboratory #GovLabLatvia created by the State Chancellery. The initiative is organised by the Ministry of Economics in cooperation with the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia and Junior Achievement Latvia. For more information on the initiative, see https://ierednieno.org/. It is planned that the initiative “Functionary shadows an entrepreneur” will happen on an annual basis – become a platform for strengthening cooperation between public administration and business.