On 28 March, the Foreign Investors’ Council in Latvia (FICIL) held its Annual General Meeting (AGM), during which FICIL members elected five Executive Board members: Reinhold Schneider, Chairman of the Board at Schwenk Latvija; Lauris Mencis, CEO of Swedbank; Liene Dubava, CEO of Nasdaq Riga and AmCham member; Kata Fredheim, Vice President for Partnerships and Strategy at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga); and Ilze Berga, Partner and Head of Tax at KPMG Latvia.
The remaining three Board members will continue their work as part of FICIL’s Executive Board: Māris Vainovskis, Senior Partner at Eversheds Sutherland; Juris Antužs, CEO and Country Manager of Enefit Green; and Mindaugas Rakauskas, Chief Executive Officer at Bite Latvija.
During the AGM, FICIL announced the relaunch of its Public Sector Reform & Digitalisation Work Group under a new title, Innovation, Institutions & Development. Reinis Āzis, Head of Business development in Poland & CEE RNG at VTTI, has handed over the reins of the Work Group leadership to Zlata Elksniņa-Zaščirinska. The group will place greater emphasis on strengthening Latvia’s long-term economic development, competitiveness, and innovation, while continuing work in the areas of public sector effectiveness, efficiency, modernisationand collaboration between the public and private sectors.
FICIL also introduced two new experts, who will strengthen the organisation’s work in key policy areas. Ints Skaldis, Senior Associate/Attorney-at-Law at Ellex Kļaviņš, joins the Labour Force & Requalification Work Group as FICIL Expert in Migration, with expertise in immigration policy, labour migration, work and residence permits, and talent mobility. Egita Peimane, Partner at Eversheds Sutherland, joins the Shadow Economy Combatting Work Group as FICIL Expert in Criminal Law, with expertise in criminal liability, fraud and corruption, financial crimes, enforcement practices, and legal risks related to shadow economy activities.
In addition, FICIL members have been reminded that Ilze Kramiņa, Senior Partner at Eversheds Sutherland and a long-term expert of FICIL in the area of construction and real estate development, has joined the Energy & Industrialisation Work Group.
FICIL also announced that on 28th May it will organise a high-level event Beyond Borders: Investment & Innovation in the Baltics, where the new Sentiment Index research results on the investment climate and innovation will be presented. The research is conducted in collaboration with the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and RTU Riga Business School, while the event is organised in collaboration with the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group Riga Office, the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA), and the German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (AHK).