AmCham kicked off the holiday season with its annual Christmas Charity reception raising EUR 1710 for our principal charities. In total our members have donated over EUR 2700 to RMHC Latvija, SOS Children Villages and Latvian Foster Families this year. More than 80 adults and 30 children joined the Christmas event and were greeted by AmCham President and Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy. Various activities for children were offered, including Christmas crafts, making gingerbread cookies, roasting of marshmallows and a special kids raffle. A new Member of the Year Award was introduced naming the most invested members thanks to whom AmCham continues to grow stronger and better connected.

On December 14 the winners of the Human Development Award 2018 were announced: entrepreneur Marika Ģederte, teacher Anna Kupre, Children's Hospital Foundation and Kraslava Mommy's Club. The Award is hosted by AmCham, U.S. Embassy in Latvia and the Civic Alliance with the aim to honor inspirational people, businesses and organizations that have significantly contributed to human development. The award promotes initiatives that reduce inequality and foster social responsibility, education, health and well-being of the Latvian people.

The AmCham Award recognizes particular members who have gone the extra mile in supporting AmCham in the past year. Members of the Year were announced on December 6: Aon Baltic, Gosselin Mobility Baltics, Pullman Riga Old Town, SEB, Strategic Staffing Solutions and Individual member Gints Zalitis. These members have gone above and beyond in helping build a better business environment and facilitating the Chamber's mission to foster US-Latvia business ties.

Throughout the year AmCham has been increasing its advocacy efforts and cooperation with various stakeholders on issues including labor force shortages, STEM education, whistleblowers' protection and digitalization. Next year we will continue to raise awareness about whistleblowers' protection and how to ensure adequate internal control mechanisms. Labor force will remain one of our strategic priorities responding to the critical need to attract qualified talent, both international and domestic. In the coming weeks we will be asking for members' opinion in an online survey on labor force issues. We are also planning to renew our Healthcare Working group, and will closely monitor Latvia's progress following up on Moneyval's report on its financial sector.

FICIL calls to participate members interested in contributing to the new Accounting Law on February 12. If you would like to join the meeting discussing the draft law, please sign up: here

BPT Real Estate and UniWeb have joined the Chamber in December. Read further to find out more about their businesses. We warmly welcome them to the AmCham community!

Premium Partnership is designed to highlight a limited number of member companies offering maximum visibility, broader access and full engagement with AmCham. This program offers extended services: everything from timely sponsorship to enormous savings on admission fees. To find out more, please contact our Program Manager: evija.gleske@amcham.lv

Ellex was awarded “Baltic M&A Legal Adviser of the Year” at Mergermarket’s prestigious European M&A Awards 2018 ceremony in London on December 6. Their Corporate/M&A partners Sven Papp, Raimonds Slaidins and Paulius Gruodis accepted the award on Ellex´s behalf at the ceremony. The award is Ellex’s fourth notable recognition received in 2018.

Leading exporters and most innovative companies were recently evaluated in Latvia. We are proud of our members' achievements in the annual Export and Innovation Awards: airBaltic was awarded as a Leading Exporter, Accenture in the category Best Large/Medium Exporter and Chocolette Confectionary in the category Industrial Design.

December 2018

As the year is coming to a close, we would like to thank you for your continuous support. This has been a year of celebration for Latvia and for AmCham. We have marked our 25th Anniversary with various programs and activities - held over 40 events with more than 2800 participants and were joined by 30 new members. Thank you for a wonderful year of cooperation, and we look forward to working with you closely in 2019!

Upcoming events

Jan 09, 2019

from 10:00 till 12:00

Jan 11, 2019

from 11:30 till 14:00

Jan 29, 2019

from 18:30 till 21:00

Feb 21, 2019

from 17:30 till 21:00

Mar 21, 2019

from 18:30 till 21:00

Special Offers

The Self Managing Leadership program: 19-21 February

New Year`s Eve Upside Down Dinner at Grand Palace Hotel