Traditionally, October is one of the busiest month in a year. FICIL is not an exception to the rule. We have finalised all the background interviews necessary for the production of the FICIL Sentiment Index 2017 and we have launched practically all the main FICIL work groups; our experts have been busy meeting with international experts to represent FICIL position on Latvia’s competitiveness, court efficiency and improvements in the insolvency policy. Read about this and many more in our monthly office report.

 

FICIL Sentiment Index 2017

You may have noticed that a representative from your company has been interviewed for the annual FICIL Sentiment Index survey. Many thanks to your company’s representative who gave an informed view on business environment from foreign investors perspective. We would also like to express sincere thanks to all the FICIL Board members who led the process (altogether 42 interviews were done). All the interviews are now in the analytical stage of the production process led by Dr Arnis Sauka from the SSE Riga. The results are expected in December and the public launch event will take place on 10 January 2018 at 10:00 venue kindly offered by SSE Riga. Please follow our newsfeed and social networks for more detail.


FICIL Members meeting – 14 November

The next FICIL Members meeting takes place on 14 November at the Evolution gaming premises (Brīvības iela 151). On the agenda: updates on the various FICIL work groups, new financing model for the FICIL High Council meetings, FICIL communication strategy and key themes for 2017/2018, preparations for the FICIL AGM (20 February 2018) and Sentiment Index launch event. As usual, this will be also an excellent opportunity for you to meet other members and discuss various items that are on your mind. Please make sure that your company is represented and you are well informed about the topicalities! In case you have any additional topics for the agenda that you would like to suggest, please let us know ficil@www.ficil.lv


Updates from FICIL work groups

Digitalisation work group 

Taking into account the rapid developments in the area of digitalisation and its impact on every business, it has become a focus of a new FICIL work group. In October the work group met for the first time to set the framework of discussion. Armed with cases where improvement is needed, the work group members held the brainstorm discussion to picture the current portrait of digitalisation policy, its implementation and the main problematic areas.

Labour Force issues work group

As the lack of labour force is a burning issue when the country is facing economic growth, members of the work group had a lot to say. Smart migration policy, regulatory framework for various types of remote work, Labour Law, training and retraining, lack of office space, role and operation of trade unions and many other topics were discussed. In November the work group will meet again and continue the discussion. Representative from the State Employment Agency will join the meeting to speak about retraining and training of unemployed. Please follow FICIL calendar at www.ficil.lv for more detail.

Health issues work group

The Health care issues work group discussed the Healthcare reform and related legislation that is now going through the Parliament. As expressed in the previous FICIL position papers (dating back to 2014 and update in 2016) one of the key concerns remains – will the reform and the additional funding transform into meaningful improvements in health indicators within the Latvian population and efficiency of the system?

Tax Policy and Administration work group 

The first draft for implementing regulations of the newly adopted Tax reform was discussed. It appears that with less than two months to go to the effective operation of the new system, there are still many questions that are not clear and that are not covered by the draft implementing regulations. A list of “burning items” was compiled by the work group members and is currently discussed with the representatives of the Ministry of Finance. Stay tuned for feedback, responses and updates. The next meeting will be announced soon.

Intellectual Property Protection work group 

The Intellectual property work group is working on amendments to the Copyright Law to reasonably limit author’s right to revoke its work (in particular, in the case of audio-visual works, computer programs, works created during employment). The proposal submitted to the Ministry of Culture by FICIL is encountering some strong headwinds and therefore additional arguments should be developed by end of November and submitted to the Ministry of Culture. We will keep you up to date about the latest developments.

Economic and Financial crime issues work group

The work group continues to focus on the issue of how to promote a better coordination among the related public bodies and how to create an efficient platform for cooperation between public and private sector. The meeting was attended by the State Secretary of Ministry of Interior. It was agreed that meetings with key stakeholders involved in prosecution and investigation of Economic and financial crimes need to take place before deciding specific proposals for action.


Meeting with International experts

In October several external meetings and conferences took place where FICIL experts and work group leaders were invited to reflect on the progress achieved. Experts from OECD and IMF looked for FICIL views and more detail on the insolvency process, efficiency of the court system, functioning of the Commercial Law and other aspects. The leader of the FICIL Economic and Financial crime issues work group Ilze Znotiņa was invited to participate in the biggest anti-corruption conference ever held in Latvia. Ilze talked about the importance of an active society to efficiently combat corruption and economic crime.

 

If you have any further questions on any of the topics mentioned above, please get in touch with us at ficil@www.ficil.lv.