The Factors of socio-economic development of the border regions of Latvia and Lithuania

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ENLithuania and Latvia formed a solid, time-tested relationship, living in the neighbourhood since time immemorial. We associate not only with historical heritage but also with various business, cultural ties, personal acquaintances, and intertwined human destinies. That’s it provides an excellent basis for the development of cooperation between the two countries and peoples. A lot of things relate Lithuania and Latvia, today. They have similar foundations and goals: - we belong to the same Baltic Sea region, - we address the problems of the welfare, employment and emigration of our people, in order to bring our countries’ living standards closer to the EU average, - we comprehend that we must devote special attention to the development of human potential, development and lifelong learning. In order to successfully achieve these goals, Lithuania and Latvia need to start from the re-establishment, strengthening and developing of the deeper interconnections between population, the creation of a common information, cultural, educational and scientific area, strengthening cooperation in the fields of economics, security and other fields. The border regions development is slower than metropolitan. The researchers point to the various causes of economic-social inequalities of the border regions across the country: - conditions of the natural living and business; - natural resources; - status and geographical location of the region; - structure of the production; - demographic differences; - conditions of the business; - social - cultural factors. [Extract, p. 71]