How to Attract Investments to Agricultural Enterprises in Latvia: Manager’s Perspective

Abstract

Investments may be considered as one of the most important facilitating factors for the economic development in the country. Management of any enterprise should think about attraction of investments, because they can increase the competitiveness of the enterprise. Since Latvia has joined the EU, Latvian farmers have been receiving various types of support from the EU—both as direct payments and from the Structural Funds after submission of projects. The EU budget for 2014–2020 is not sufficient for Latvia farmers. Therefore the agricultural enterprises have limited opportunities for development, using new investment projects for renovation of the capital assets and modernisation. The aim of the paper is to research the availability of investments for Latvia agricultural enterprises on the basis of scientific approaches to investments, as well as the possibilities to assess accurately the financial attractiveness of investment projects. The authors conclude that the main requirements for correct assessment of a project are the description of the project realization schedule and preparation, substantiation and verification of initial data. More cost-effective investment sources for agricultural enterprises are associated with government subsidies and the EU Structural Funds.