FICIL has been in a festive spirit for a while now, with a lot to celebrate and with a lot of work still ahead of us. Its been a busy few months, so let us round-up on the highlights since November as well as inform you on what’s coming in 2020.

FICIL Sentiment Index 2019

While we actively keep preparing for FICIL Sentiment Index launch event, you are very welcome to reserve your seat for the event on 15 January 2020 14:00 at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga here while registration is still open. The discussion among coalition parties’ representatives from the parliament, the investors and state officials will be moderated by journalist, Mr. Jānis Domburs. FICIL Sentiment Index 2019 full report will be available on FICIL website on the morning of 15 January.

A New FICIL Member

To end the year on a high note, we are happy to welcome the newest member of FICIL – TELE2 Latvia! After a successful presentation by Mr. Valdis Vancovičs at the members’ meeting, FICIL unanimously voted to  welcome TELE2 Latvia to the membership as of 2020. Thanks to the generous host Aldaris, FICIL members also had the chance to enjoy a guided tour around the Aldaris Beer Museum and participate in a beer tasting.

FICIL in Action

FICIL Board held a meeting with the President of Latvia, Mr. Egils Levits,  to discuss many important topics, such as governance of higher education institutions, court system efficiency as well as the overall vision for Latvia as a country. More information on the meeting available here.

Investment Protection and Court Efficiency work group representatives met with Legal Policy Adviser to the President of Latvia, Mr. Jānis Pleps, and economic policy adviser, Mrs. Alise Pīka, to talk about court specialisation,  further improving the quality of legislative process, problems in public procurement regulation, as well as improving the regulation of insolvency proceedings. More information available here.

 

Digitalisation work group members are cooperating with VARAM by providing investors’ input for the OECD draft report Going Digital in Latvia.

Tax Policy and Administration work group are finalizing recommendations on different tax areas for the upcoming tax reform 2021, while also participating in Saeima Tax Policy Subcommittee of the Budget and Finance (Taxation) Committee meetings to outline FICIL’s viewpoint on the upcoming reform.

 

Intellectual Property Protection work group is currently focusing on amendments to the Copyright law concerning moral rights of the authors.

Healthcare issues work group is discussing physical, economic and information access to healthcare services, focusing on primary, secondary and long-term care, as well as the quality, efficiency and cost of healthcare services.


Labour force issues
 work group held a meeting with the Ministry of Health and General Practitioners associations to discuss fake sick leave issuance.


Education
 work group representatives have been actively involved in discussion forums on challenges in Latvia’s higher education system organised by the Ministry of Education and Science.


Energy and Waste Management 
is preparing a unified position for Cabinet regulations dealing with creation of the deposit system, as well as discussing changes in the Natural resources tax.

Kick back nad relax during the holidays, we will see you in 2020!

To find out more, follow us on Twitter or visit our webpage www.ficil.lv
-Your FICIL Team