The Ministry of Economics is the leading state administrative institution in the field of industry and service policy, business policy and tourism policy.
The Ministry of Economics is developing, organising and coordinating external economic, construction, energy, internal market, innovation development, commercial development, competitiveness development, housing, consumer protection, privatisation, industrial, standardisation and tourism policies, as well as structural economic policies.
In order to ensure the performance of functions, the Ministry performs the following tasks:
- develops drafts of legal acts and development planning documents regulating the industry;
- provides opinions on draft legal acts and development planning documents developed by other institutions;
- cooperates with other state administrative institutions in the development and implementation of a unified state policy, as well as in the performance of tasks, in accordance with the procedures specified in legal acts;
- ensures the implementation of the sector's policy in subordinate institutions of the Ministry and State Capital Companies in which the Ministry is the holder of state capital shares (hereinafter - State Capital Companies);
- ensures the development of research applications ordered by the state, as well as promotes the effective use of research results in the development of industry policy;
- informs the publicly about the policy of the industry and the activities of the institutions subordinate to the Ministry, involves the representatives of the public in the decision-making and adoption process, promotes social dialogue on issues related to the development, implementation and evaluation of the policy of the industry;
- in the field of economic structural policy coordination:
- prepares reports on the state's economic status and competitiveness, develops proposals on the necessary changes in structural policy;
- conducts macroeconomic analysis and develops long-term scenarios and forecasts of economic development;
- coordinates with the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Latvia the forecasts of the main macroeconomic indicators for the development of the draft state budget;
- ensures the coordination of the process of the European Union's annual economic policy implementation monitoring cycle - the European Semester - at the national level;
- develops the Latvian National Reform Program and coordinates its implementation;
- in cooperation with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), ensures the development of the Economic Report on Latvia by the OECD and the supervision of the implementation of the recommendations included in it;
- develops mid- and long-term labor market forecasts and maintains a labor market analysis and forecasting system;
- in the field of external economic policy:
- develops and implements export promotion and foreign investment attraction measures;
- coordinates the establishment of the network of external economic representations of Latvia and their operation;
- ensures representation of Latvia's economic interests in international organizations and European Union institutions;
- in accordance with the competences, ensures the fulfillment of the obligations of the European Union in accordance with the current division of competences of the ministries on European Union issues;
- ensures the representation of Latvia in the OECD in accordance with the current division of competences of ministries in representing the Republic of Latvia in the committees and working groups of the OECD;
- according to competences, organizes official visits of foreign delegations;
- improves the business environment and coordinates business support tools;
- plans, implements and monitors development programs and projects, attracting European Union and foreign funding;
- according to competences, participates in events organized by international organizations, concludes international cooperation agreements and coordinates international cooperation;
- performs other tasks defined by legislation.