Lawmakers of the Baltic State of Latvia and Ghana have agreed to collaborate to improve legislative practices in both countries.
The proposed collaboration was part of discussions at a meeting held between the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey who is also a Member of Parliament and the Deputy Speaker of the Latvian Parliament, Ms. Inese Labina-Egnere, at the White-Brown Hall in Riga, Latvia.
According to Labina-Egnere, the Latvian Parliament would be glad to share its rich experience in the areas of ICT-aided law making among others.
On her part, Ayorkor-Botchwey pointed out that she would forward the content of the discussions to the leadership of Parliament for the actual processes to initiate the exchange of ideas to begin without delay.
The Latvian Parliament
The Speaker of the Latvian Parliament is one of the top officials of the State who represents the Saeima, chairs and maintains order during the plenary sittings, as well as ensures that the sitting is held in accordance with the rules of procedure.
The work of the Saeima is supervised by its Presidium, which is elected by each new convocation of the Saeima at the beginning of its term of office. The Presidium consists of five MPs: the Speaker, two Deputy Speakers, the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary.
A member of parliament is one of the hundred representatives of the people who are elected in general, equal, direct elections, by secret ballot, and on the basis of proportional representation. At least five members of the same candidate list may form a parliamentary group. Members elected from the same candidate list may form only one parliamentary group and may not join another parliamentary group.
Other Avenues of Collaboration
The two leaders during their discussions agreed that it was time for their respective countries to lift their bilateral relations from political consultations to economic collaboration that would yield financial benefits to the two countries.
The meeting also considered various sectors of the Latvian body politic that has seen transformation such as education, E-governance, agro-processing and the pharmaceutical industry. The two leaders agreed that Ghana has a lot to learn from Latvia in the identified areas.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Wilberforce Asare
