Early this year 81.6 percent of housholds in Latvia had access to the internet which is by 3 percentage points more than a year ago and by 2.18 percentage points more than in 2010, according to the Central Statistical Bureau.
The internet is available almost to all households with children (98.1 percent), while households without children have access to the internet less frequently (76.4 percent). The lowest share of households having access to the internet was recorded among households of single persons (64.9 percent), while the largest in households consisting of two adults with children (98.6 percent).
Read more: LV: 81.6 percent of households in Latvia have access to internet
Implementation of the e-health project in Latvia stumbled because of inefficient project management and insufficient supervision from the part of the Health Ministry, said Chief Auditor Elita Krumina at a joint meeting of Saeima committees on February 21st, informs LETA.
Krumina said that the sector had not defined its requirements during the implementation process, a number of different developers were involved, there was a rotation of employees. The implementation time was too long, and also there were problems because a decision was made to introduce the system at once instead of gradually as it happened in Estonia, for example.
The Ministry of Economy this year's meeting of January 3, informed the Cabinet of the Ministry of workshops organized by the European Union and the Single Digital Single Market issues identified Latvian interests and recommended measures at the national level.
Latvia is interested in full-fledged functioning of the EU Single Market and implementation of measures that will improve the Latvian entrepreneurs in the EU single market. Contributing to the EU and the Single Digital Single Market integration and removing non-tariff barriers, Latvian benefits in the medium term can be up to 3% of gross domestic product growth of 9% and an increase in trade with the EU countries.
According to the European Commission eGovernment Benchmark 2017, Latvia ranks 8th by e-government performance with results that are higher than the EU average, the Latvian Ministry of Environment and Regional Development said, cites LETA.
Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Spain and Latvia are in the group of advanced countries with effective e-government. Latvia also is one of the nine EU member states where the main public services are available to people and businesses online, said the ministry's spokeswoman, Laura Jansone.
Read more: Latvia ranks 8th in EU by e-government performance
All actions thus far regarding the implementation of the so-called e-health project in Latvia were aimed at only absorbing the European Union funds, not achieving specific goals, reports LETA, according to the State Audit Office.
Thus, the State Audit Office is concerned that Latvia could lose the relevant EU funding.
If the audit finds that the project's goals have not been achieved and the EU funds have been spent for purposes other than intended, Latvia will have to provide EUR 11.3 million to cover the cost of the project.