With less than two months to go, the Foreign Investors' Council in Latvia (FICIL) is busy working towards the upcoming High Council that will be held in May 26-27. Their work groups continue reviewing previous recommendations and discuss various topicalities. Members of the Board have started interviews with their corporate members that will feed in the Shadow Economy Report.

The insolvency abuse research has been finalized and the key conclusions and proposals will be launched to a wider public during various events taking place in the coming weeks.

FICIL work group activity in March:

Construction work group - the group discussed issues related to restrictions for selling agricultural land; various problems faced when dealing with the municipality as part of the construction process; issues related to the construction of one building on two or more land plots and mixed use development (more than one building) on one land plot; issues regarding the responsibility of the construction process participants. The group is also envisaging a letter to the City Development Department of Riga City Council (or a meeting) regarding territorial planning matters.

Education work group - members of the group met to discuss the draft paper summarising previous position papers on education that should feed in the preparations for the HC review of previous work. As a result a second draft has been prepared and circulated for further comments. Representatives of the group had an introductory visit to meet the new Minister for Education, Mr K.Šadurskis - it was agreed to continue the cooperation and have regular follow up meetings in the future.

Health work group - the group focuses on the plans regarding the compulsory health insurance models. The group representatives have attended meetings at the Saeima Health subcommittee, Bank of Latvia and with academia representatives to hear the various ideas and views. The group is considering organising an event bringing together all the different stakeholders.

Investment protection work group - the group continued discussion about the real estate transactions registration reform. A letter has been formulated and sent to the Ministry of Justice (and for information to the Ministries of Finance and Economics) about the amendments to the procedure of real estate transactions as proposed by the Sworn Notaries Council, including best practice from 18 countries. The group also continued discussions about specific proposals to restrict the shadow economy in the context of investment protection and legal system efficiency.

Tax Administration work group - the group has summarized and currently is discussing the unimplemented and partially implemented recommendations made by FICIL on macroeconomic and tax policies. The group also discussed and agreed on a letter to the Ministry of Finance regarding mediation in tax disputes. The next meeting is currently scheduled for 21 April.

If you are interested in participating in the work of any of the work groups or would like to have more information, please let us know by emailing ficil@ficil.lv.

For more detail, please read FICIL`s newsletter.