March 12 (Reuters) - Valdis Dombrovskis won a vote of confidence in parliament on Thursday to become the new prime minister of crisis-hit Latvia.
Following are highlights of the policies he and his six-party centre-right coalition government intend to pursue amid the small Baltic state's recession, which forced it last year to seek a 7.5 billion euro ($9.58 billion) rescue loan.
-- Dombrovskis wants to reverse the practices of previous years, when governments spent freely even during boom times. The new government is aiming for anti-cyclical policies, meaning it will aim to balance the budget and have budget surpluses during growth periods, but have deficits during recessions.
-- It aims for a more sustainable fiscal policy, with rises in budget spending not allowed to be above the nominal rate of growth in gross domestic product (GDP).
-- It aims for a relatively low tax burden, only increasing taxes in extraordinary circumstances.
-- It will stick to a plan to aim to adopt the euro in 2012
-- It aims quickly to amend the 2009 budget with more spending cuts in order to avoid the state going bankrupt.
-- It will negotiate with the International Monetary Fund and European Union to win agreement to raise the budget deficit this year to 7 percent of GDP from the 5 percent agreed under the rescue package last year.
-- Within the framework of the European Union, it will work for a new cooperation and partnership deal with Russia.
-- It will continue to support Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova as part of the EU partnership programme, actively involving Armenia, Belarus and Azerbaijan.
-- It will back Croatian and Turkish EU membership (Reporting by Patrick Lannin, editing by Mark Trevelyan)