Happy new year! We hope everyone has had a lovely holiday season and been able to enjoy the festivities. 2020 has begun with a bang for FICIL! Take a look at some of the highlights from a very active January.

FICIL Sentiment Index 2019

On 15 January, FICIL launched the 5th consecutive Sentiment Index report. The research examined in more detail four important topics for investors: quality of higher education, stability of the financial sector, predictability of tax system, as well as productivity of work force.

Investors had a chance to talk directly to members of the Parliament as well as public sector representatives in a discussion about Latvia’s competitiveness for attracting foreign investment. Topics such as labour force availability, financial sector “overhaul”, court system efficiency were at the forefront. The discussion was moderated by journalist Jānis Domburs, the booklet and launch event video are available here.

A special thank you to Dr. Arnis Sauka for producing the report and a very warm thank you to the companies who participated in the interviews.

FICIL Annual General Meeting

FICIL has announced an official call to Annual General Meeting on 21 February, where a few important decisions will be made by the members. This year, we will have to elect four Board members; therefore, FICIL invites you to apply for candidacy for the FICIL Board. Information about the roles and responsibilities of FICIL Executive Board members is available here. Please consider your own candidacy and encourage those who you think might be good candidates to stand for the election.

FICIL in Action

The first month of the year proved to be very busy with several important topics for the investment environment up for public discussion.

FICIL participated in the annual Social partners visit to the European Commission in Brussels, organised by the European Commission Representation in Latvia. The 2-day event included informative meetings on the top priorities of the EU Commission, Brexit, economic tendencies in Europe and more.

FICIL Board members met with representatives from the International Monetary Fund to speak about Latvia’s competitiveness in attracting foreign investment, as well as the current challenges relating to the overall investment climate.

Education work group leader Mr. Claudio Rivera, represented FICIL at the Saeima Education, Culture and Science committee meetings on the governance of higher education institutions. FICIL has always supported the notion of increased financing for higher education, however, transparent, efficient and professional governance has to be a precondition.

Tax Policy and Administration work group leader, Mrs. Vita Sakne has been participating in Saeima Tax Policy Subcommittee of the Budget and Finance (Taxation) Committee meetings regarding the upcoming Tax reform 2021 while also representing FICIL’s views in the media.

Mrs. Ingrīda Kariņa-Bērziņa, the leader of the Intellectual Property Protection work group, has been participating in the Ministry of Culture work group meetings presenting FICIL’s position on necessary amendments to the Copyright law.

Digitalisation work group members have been actively participating in meetings with VARAM to discuss OECD Going Digital research on Latvia.

The work groups are very active in discussing potential recommendations, narrowing down specific topics to include in the High Council position papers. You can still sign up for the work groups here.

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

FICIL in Action

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