IT Strengths in Latvia

Latvia posses various strengths with regard to its Information Technology industry. For example, Latvia maintains highly qualified software engineers leading to high quality software products. However, the number of engineers is quite small when compared to the population of the country.  These engineers are experienced in software development, project organization, and leadership. In addition, there is and acceptable availability and quality of data communications services in Latvia, and high quality resources for software development are available in Latvia at significantly lower cost than  in the Western countries.    Visit IT Labor Market for additional information on the workforce. There are relatively low infrastructure and overhead costs, as well as low cost of unskilled labor. Most enterprises are ISO 9000 certified in Lativa. In addition, there is a strong interest of secondary school graduates in IT resulting in a high number of applicants to the universities for IT study.  The best specialists are unlikely to leave Latvia because they have the chance to live according to Western standards in Latvia.

IT Weaknesses in Latvia

The companies in Latvia are too small to offer complete outsourcing services to the largest international clients directly. In many cases the value of such contracts exceed one million US dollars and also involve other services such as technology or employee transfer that Latvian companies are not ready to provide. The following is a list of weaknesses with regard to information technolgy in Latvia:

• Slow development of the labor market in this sector.
• Disparity between what the universities teach and industry demand.
• Lack of marketing skills and experience with projects for foreign clients. This is a big challenge for the potential export of IT services and products.
• Relatively undeveloped other industries that could drive the demand and supply for such services as E-commerce. For example, the small size and low level of development of the financial markets makes online brokerage development impossible.
• Limited access to financing new enterprises. There is  little venture capital  used in financing new upstarts and becoming a public company is not popular either.
• Limited government support reducing Latvia's competitiveness.
• Small number of experienced system analysts, project managers, technical writers, and IT consultants.
• Under developed legal setting for IT development.

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