The Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia decided to support the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with EUR 9 million. About EUR 4 million is meant for investments at LTV in order to buy new equipment. That means that the costs of for the 2003 Latvian Song and Dance Festival could be cut, because LTV will not have to rent the required equipment but will use its own.
According to the Minister of Culture, Karina Petersone, the government will have to adopt a separate decision on allotting money for security measures during the song contest, and on advertising the contest abroad.
LTV will receive EUR 930.000 from the sum in 2002. The rest of the investments will be given from the next annual budget. The total costs of the 48th Eurovision Song Contest are expected to reach an amount between EUR 9 million and EUR 12 million.
Finally, at the end of August LTV started to record the Eurovision postcards. According to unconfirmed information, the first clip was meant to introduce the Polish song and was recorded in Ventspils.
