At its meeting on April 28, the Government updated Cabinet Order No. 117 of March 2, 2023 “On approval of the passport of the 2.1.1.1.i. investment project “ICT unified management and digital solutions for cultural sector institutions”” (Cabinet Order) and its annex in order to specify the amount of financing and target indicators of the investment project.
In accordance with the requests of the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development, the need for additional project financing was assessed for both existing activities and new activities that could be implemented by May 31, 2026. Amendments to the Cabinet Order will provide several significant additional measures.
The Cabinet of Ministers' order increased the planned project costs from EUR 2,477,960 to EUR 2,755,412, including increasing the European Union Recovery and Resilience Facility funding from EUR 2,084,000 to EUR 2,315,000 and increasing the state budget funding for value added tax from EUR 393,960 to no more than EUR 440,412.
The project will implement the digital transformation and improvement of the services of the State Unified Archives Information System of the National Archives of Latvia, creating a new e-service portal of the National Archives of Latvia and improving public access to archive services. The inquiry processing system will also be modernized, including the workflow and the processes for preparing service results, thereby speeding up and improving the efficiency of service delivery.
The centralization and improvement of information and communication technology services will also be carried out in the cultural sector, which will contribute to the modernization of public administration, the provision of unified support and the development and provision of higher-quality services. It is planned to add generative artificial intelligence functionality using large language model cloud service to improve the capabilities and user experience of virtual assistants, expanding the knowledge base of virtual assistants, accelerating the creation of new scenarios and reducing time consumption, allowing assistants to provide answers to a wider range of topics and questions for platform users throughout public administration.
The deadlines for the achievable indicators will be specified in accordance with the actual progress of the project implementation in order to ensure a higher-quality, verified and more accurate achievement of the significant benefits of information and communication technology solutions. The planned specified deadlines for the achievable indicators do not affect the overall project implementation deadline, which is set until May 31, 2026.
The project appendix specifies information on integration with the Digital Object Management System of the National Library of Latvia. During the detailed study, no justifications were identified for the initially planned specific integration of the Unified Library Catalog of the National Library of Latvia with the Digital Object Management System of the National Library of Latvia, therefore the aforementioned integration has been excluded from the scope of the project. The investment project costs for covering value added tax in accordance with the implementation and additional allocated funding have also been specified.
About the Recovery and Resilience Facility:
The EU Recovery and Resilience Facility is a budget program managed centrally by the European Commission, established in addition to the EU's multiannual budget for the 2021–2027 programming period. The program aims to support reforms and investments related to the transition to a green and digital economy, as well as to mitigate the social and economic impact of the crisis. By the end of 2026, it is planned to invest EUR 1.97 billion from the Recovery and Resilience Facility in the Latvian economy by implementing reforms and making investments in all six areas of the Recovery and Resilience Facility: Climate and Energy (including REPowerEU), Digital Transformation, Reducing Inequality, Economic Transformation, Health, and Rule of Law.
The Recovery and Resilience Facility reforms and investments in Latvia are financed from the European Commission Recovery and Resilience Facility budget, with co-financing from the state budget.
Information prepared by:
Alma Rudzīte
Officer of Public Relations Division, Ministry of Culture
Tel.: +371 25784795
Email: Alma.Rudzite@km.gov.lv
(Translated with the help of DeepL Translate)
