The AmCham Board and staff met to discuss the Chamber's current strategy and future priorities during the pandemic period: enhancement of trade and investment between Latvia and the US, ensuring safe business and investment climate in Latvia, attracting international talent - Latvia as a career destination and improving health outcomes of Latvia's society.

In order to improve the oncology patient registry in Latvia, AmCham together with the Ministry of Health, National Health Service, Center for Disease Prevention and Control, healthcare professionals and doctors from the largest hospitals of Latvia held a design thinking workshop to define business needs of key stakeholders.

On August 27, AmCham in partnership with Citadele banka hosted a hybrid format discussion on the real impact of the COVID-19 emergency situation and government support for businesses in Latvia with keynote speakers Mārtiņš Kazāks, Bank of Latvia and Mārtiņš Āboliņš, Citadele, and a panel of high profile business leaders: Martin Gauss, airBaltic; Kaspars Jansons, Citadele; Jānis Mozga, Sonora; Indra Sāmīte, Tilde. Revisit the event here!

In partnership with Tatarklubben, AmCham members were invited to yet another education webinar this time with the Harvard Business Review author and INSEAD Associate Professor Jennifer Petriglier who explored the topic How Dual-Career Couples Can Find Fulfillment in Love and Work.

In July, the Minister of Health met with a group of AmCham members to discuss the main lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis and share her vision on the way forward for the healthcare sector. Test, trace, isolate has been Latvia's response, which, comprehensively implemented at all levels, has ensured comparative success in fighting the novel coronavirus.

On July 3 over 100 guests celebrated the 244th Anniversary of U.S. Independence with an outdoor drive-in movie night screening "Patriot’s Day" at the Business Garden Riga campus. The event was kicked off with opening remarks by U.S. Ambassador in Latvia John Carwile and President of AmCham Zinta Jansons.

Medlex Baltics which specializes in two main areas of translations: medical disciplines and pharmacy, and finances and law has recently joined the Chamber as a Small Business member. We warmly welcome them to our community!

Ingrida Karina-Berzina, an attorney dual-qualified in the United States (PA, NJ) and Latvia, has re-joined the Chamber as an Individual member. As of July 1, she decided to pursue her doctoral studies. From 2012-2020 Ingrīda was a partner and Head of the IP & IT Practice Group at pan-Baltic law firm COBALT. She has served on the AmCham Board from 2013-2020, where she was Vice President (2014-2019) and President (2019-2020). She has also served on the Board of FICIL (2018-2019). A very warm welcome to Ingrida!

Considering the political situation in Belarus, Investment and development agency of Latvia has mobilized resources to provide all necessary assistance to those business representatives who have voiced interest in cooperation with Latvia and want to develop their business in Latvia. Read more here

PwC's Academy is about to begin the new academic year by offering online tax seminars for the first time. The new season offers two extensive training programs designed for CFOs, accountants, and lawyers. You can either complete a full program or only pick certain modules.

Read an article by AmCham Board Member, Head of the Labor Force work group and Country Manager at Microsoft Baltics, Renāte Strazdiņa on one of the most topical issues for the labor market today - skills for the digital era.

The annual fair organized by the Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum would mark the 50th anniversary season this year, however, due to restrictions on gatherings, the fair was postponed to 2021. In order to provide buyers from Latvia and abroad with the opportunity to buy goods of local craftsmen and home producers and sell the products already produced to traders, a trading portal www.egadatirgus.lv has been created with the initiative and support of Luminor bank.

The beginning of the upcoming school year is shrouded in uncertainty in Latvia just as in the rest of the world. But the digital platforms long in place take quite a bit of anxiety out of the equation. Latvia has long-since implemented a remote classroom TavaKlase and other digital tools like Edurio, Solfeg.io and Koklumezs. Learn more about other success stories here: www.aheadofthecurve.eu

On July 16, 2020 the European Court of Justice invalidated the Privacy Shield mechanism to transfer data from the EU to the U.S.

Read the latest VA Goverment report on political and policy developments in Latvia. Key topics include the measures implemented in Latvia to fight the COVID-19 crisis, administrative-territorial reform, and insight into the European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy that aims to make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly.

SOS Children's Villages and famous Latvian chefs invite you to various Latvia's restaurants on September 1st in order to support their charity campaign "Take your beloved ones to a restaurant and help others to get to the school". Many restaurants in Latvia will support this campaign for a 6th year in a row. Check out the list of restaurants and bring your family to one of them by helping children get ready for school!

Bite Latvija donates 345 school bags to primary school children living in SOS Children's Villages in Latvia. All those bags have been prepared by Bite Latvija employees with everything children need for a successful start of the new school year.

It is the right time to help 227 children left without their biological parents get ready for school! The Latvian Foster Family Association kindly asks to support their annual campaign "School children must go to school!". Watch the video about Latvian Foster Family Association!

Latvia’s first international luxury hotel, Grand Hotel Kempinski Riga, welcomes doctors, nurses, paramedics, technicians and other medical workers from around the world by inviting to visit Latvia’s capital Riga with a special offer "HEROES" until end of the year.

July/August 2020

Welcome to our latest Newsletter! Thanks to your active involvement we have held 9 webinars in Connect with AmCham series and even more online events on topical themes during this challenging time of pandemic. We also managed to successfully promote several advocacy issues: higher education governance reform, healthcare, economic court and human capital development. Last week our board met to assess activities during the past six months and to plan future events. We were delighted to organize a hybrid format event together with Citadele on the real impact of the emergency situation. We also held a Design Thinking Workshop for Oncology data registry thanks to efforts of our active Healthcare work group. After a short summer break we are back with a plenty of opportunities. Our events will continue to be online, hybrid and in-person, closely following the latest developments.

Upcoming events

Sep 03, 2020

from 16:00 till 17:00

Sep 04, 2020

from 12:00 till 14:00

Sep 09, 2020

from 18:30 till 21:00

Sep 15, 2020

from 15:00 till 16:00

Sep 28, 2020

from 17:00 till 19:00

Nov 26, 2020

from 10:00 till 17:00

Special Offers

Discussion: Culture of compliance - enabler of sustainable development