Latvia, Детальна інформація

Health Care...



The number of physicians in relation to the population is high in Latvia by international standards, however, the number of physicians to nurses and other paramedics is low. The IMF recommends that "the health care system needs to be restructured to achieve greater internal efficiency.". (IMF, 1995). The health status of Latvia's 2.6 million people (of which one million live in Riga) has continued to deteriorate since the beginning of the decade. At the end of 1993, life expectancy for men was 63 and for women 75. "Immediate concerns include the shortage of medical equipment, the poor condition of the facilities at the state and district institutions, the inadequate focus on redirecting limited resources from expensive curative impatient care to cost-effective public health programs, and inexperience in developing and implementing preventative programs to provide broad ranging primary health care services.". (IMF, 1995). The main challenge facing the current health sector reform is the coordination of a combination of measures to improve the effectiveness of health services and contain costs. Appropriate policies, strategies, and programs will have to be implemented to achieve these objectives. Short-term objectives are recommended to include "supporting the government in the reform of the health sector through technical assistance in policy and strategy formulation and the development of cost-effective programs"(IMF, 1995).















Education, Training, and Research...



Latvia has a rich history of educational developments, and in 1990 extensive reforms were introduced to bring the system more in line with the educational system in Western Europe. The education system should continue to be adapted, particularly in the areas of vocational education and adult retraining, to the needs of the market economy.







Environment...



Latvia's level of air pollution is considerably lower than most other countries in Central Europe. Many problems center around the inadequate attention given to environmental issues when developing urban areas. Problems with solid waste management are currently found throughout the country.







Transportation...



Transportation in Latvia consists of 2, 397 km of railway, of which a very small portion are electrically run. There are 20,500km of roads. The country has a national airline, Air Latvia, which is in the process of being privatized.