News
IMF Improves Latvia’s GDP Forecast
Industry Continued to Grow Rapidly, a Slower Rate Expected in the Next Months
An Annual Retail Turnover Increase for the First Time since 2008
Rapid Contraction of Wage-Productivity Gap Allows Industrial Growth
Latvia's Outlook Raised to `Stable' by Fitch on Budget, Improving Economy
Government Takes Action to Attract Large Foreign Investments
Action Plan of Combating Shadow Economy Approved
Retail Turnover Indicators Stabilize as the Future Evaluation of Households Improve
Bank of Latvia Lowers Deflation Forecast for 2010
Current Account Positive, Overall Balance of Exports and Imports Posts a Small Surplus
Riga welcomes 80 Latvia's Honorary Consuls from 49 countries
Money in Circulation Stabilized, Drop in Lending Abating
Shadow Economy Reduction Plan Offers to Facilitate Formal Economy
Beneficial Development Requires Purposeful Cooperation
Foreign Investors Council in Latvia adopts the statement of Good Corporate Citizenship
The meeting of the high level officials and the Foreign Investors' Council in Latvia
The World Bank Suggests Measures for Further Fiscal Consolidation
Moody’s has Raised Latvia’s Ratings Outlook
Moody’s Considers Latvian Economy Stabilising
Association of Latvian Commercial Banks Forecasts 3,2% Growth in 2011
Parex Index: the Mood of Entrepreneurs is Becoming More Stable
Latvia – Leader of Baltics on the EU Fund Acquisition
Latvia to Become Main Transit State for Shipping NATO Non-military Cargos to Afghanistan
The Foreign Investor’s Council in Latvia has Elected a New Board and Started to Prepare for the Fifteenth High Council Meeting
31 March 2011
The new Board of the Foreign Investors’ Council in Latvia (FICIL) has elected the organisation's management at its first meeting. Ahmed Sharkh, Chairman of the Board of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Latvia has been appointed to the position of Chairman of the Board for the Organisation. Toms Siliņš, Chief Financial Officer of Swedbank, and Jerry Wirth, representative of the American Chamber of Commerce, have been appointed to the positions of Vice Chairmen of the FICIL’s Board.
Alongside the officials already named, Kristīne Jarve, Senior Manager at Ernst & Young Baltics responsible for provision of tax advisory services, and Gunnar Ljungdahl, Senior Vice-president at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, have been re-elected to FICIL’s Board. For the first time, Arttu Airiainen, General Manager of Neste Latvija, and Enrique A. Garcia, Managing Director and Chairman of the Board for CEMEX Latvija, have been elected to the Board.
Ahmed Sharkh has over 20 years of experience in providing professional services including audit, risk management advisory, information systems audit and advisory, forensic accounting, capital markets, financial due diligence, controls and regulatory services, working with clients in London, Abu-Dhabi, Dubai, Almaty and Moscow. Ahmed Sharkh has a Bachelors degree from the University of Detroit (USA) with a double major in Management Science and Information Systems, and Accounting. He has worked on FICIL’s Board since 2010.
“Every investor craves for predictable business environment and FICIL had always in facilitating that,” said Ahmed Sharkh. “We clearly see that the new economic and social reality in Latvia requires a changing of old paradigms. In order to achieve sustainable, long term progress and development of the economy, we need to look for transformation, as reformation is not sufficient enough. In our organisation we hope to be able to provide support for the government and the society by sharing experiences from our respective home countries on handling challenging times and looking for paths to recovery.”
FICIL works by developing an active and open dialogue with the government. With a view to that, FICIL and the Latvian government each year holds the High Council Meeting to discuss topics on the Latvian economy as well as issues regarding the business environment. The fifteenth High Council Meeting will take place on May 19 -20, 2011. Currently, FICIL is working on Position Papers regarding the financial market development, the macroeconomic situation and the improvement of tax administration, and on public procurement procedures. Panel discussion participants will discuss these and other relevant topics such as the transport and logistics sector as the pivotal area for competitiveness in Latvia, addressing the fate of structural reforms within circumstances of demographical and fiscal limitations, and others.
FICIL brings together 26 large companies from various countries and sectors that have made significant investments in Latvia, as well as ten countries' Chambers of Commerce in Latvia. FICIL's activities are based on dialogue with the Latvian Government with the aim to work out identified business environment problems. FICIL actively seeks out and recommends solutions for the improvement of the investment climate in Latvia.
