Foreign Investors Council in Latvia (FICIL) has had a very busy Autumn of 2020. They had to go from the annual FICIL High Council meeting with the Government of Latvia in mid-September straight to the FICIL Sentiment Index research.

Sentiment Index 2020
With more than 40 interviews taking place in a short period of time, the FICIL Sentiment Index research is almost finished. Investors have given their opinion on challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, policy makers job performance and Latvia's competitiveness in attracting foreign investment. The launch event is planned for January 2021, The Chamber will be keep you updated on relevant information relating to the event.

FICIL in action
Investment protection and court efficiency work group leader Māris Vainovskis represented FICIL during a Ministry of Justice organised conference to discuss the role of the justice system on economic development of countries.

FICIL has been actively participating in various public sector work groups with the aim to overcome the negative consequences of the current situation from a business perspective, including the Human resource work group at the Ministry of Economics. The focus of this work group is the requalification topic of available work force.

Continuing the topic of people and skills, the Education work group leader Claudio Rivera has attended over 5 Education committee meetings at the Parliament, where currently the draft law on Higher education is discussed, including the issue concerning higher education institution governance.

Baiba Strupiša, the co-leader of the Tax work group outlined the business perspective in a discussion aimed at highlighting the progress of the "consult first" principle in the public sector. FICIL executive director Linda Helmane participated in a panel discussion organised by the State Employment Agency covering the issue of emigration and re-emigration in Latvia. During this time FICIL has also been involved in the port reform draft law, fair competition legislation currently up for discussion, the developments in the creation of the deposit system, as well as insolvency legislation meetings.

The work group meetings are currently taking place to discuss the upcoming priorities. Please check the calendar at www.ficil.lv for upcoming work group meetings. To register for any of the work groups, please follow this link.