On February 24, AmCham hosted an online discussion in the Thought Leaders Series for Corporate Contributing members focusing on leadership lessons ensuring business continuity. Leaders from across various industries: Reinis Rubenis of Swedbank, Dace Silava-Tomsone of COBALT, Rima Valentukeviciene of IBM Baltics and Rauls Velins of Roche  shared best practices for navigating through the current crisis. The conversation was moderated by Ieva Racenaja, Director of Riga Graduate School of Law and AmCham Vice President.

Over 70 members joined the online meeting with the Mayor of Riga who presented his vision on reshaping the capital into a better governed, greener, more sustainable and connected city offering the best quality of life. Mayor Stakis outlined his priorities: identifying corruption risks, ensuring good governance, improving traffic and housing infrastructure.

Our latest webinar in Connect with AmCham series organized in cooperation with our member Sorainen focused on the tax update for 2021 including such issues as share options, recent amendments concerning the personal income tax and social insurance contributions as well as changes related to VAT on e-commerce. Topics were covered by three experts from Sorainen: Janis Taukacs, Partner, Dace Everte, Senior Associate and Aina Oksenuka, Associate.

On the 18th of February, our sister organization AmCham Estonia together with the EU Commission Representation in Estonia invited AmCham Latvia members to join an interactive forum with the top policy-makers and business experts, who addressed the topics of Responsible AI from many different angles.

The AmCham Board held its semi-annual retreat to discuss the strategic direction for 2021. Among key priority areas will be the enhancement of trade, investment and raising awareness of economic opportunities between Latvia and the US, improving the investment and business climate in Latvia, getting prepared for the future of work and improving health outcomes of Latvia's society.

The Director of the Latvian Data State Inspectorate addressed members on the role of the national data supervisory authority in shaping EU-wide legislation, lessons learned from the GDPR enforcement and the development of new data transfer agreements between the EU and the U.S.

Baltic RE Group, an experienced real estate investor specialized in the creation and subsequent realization and management of value-added and core portfolios in the Baltics, has recently joined the Chamber as a Small Business member. We warmly welcome Baltic Re Group to our community!

At the Health Work group meeting Dita Sile was elected the Chair of the group. The work group members express gratitude to former chair Zinta Jansons who stepped down after driving the group's activities over the last two years. The work group focuses on completing five pilot projects in 2021, mainly in the field of digital health.

On February 17, AmCham published recommendations aimed at improving digital literacy among citizens according to the international best practices and by ensuring better governance and cooperation between all stakeholders. As the COVID-19 crisis has unveiled the importance of digital literacy across all levels, enabling digital skills must become the priority for upskilling and reskilling. Recognizing Latvia's continued efforts in upskilling and reskilling of its workforce, AmCham calls for immediate action to carry out coordinated efforts in order to prepare workforce for the new way of working and, in particular, boost digital literacy, learn from the best and improve governance and cooperation.

On February 11, FICIL Executive Board held an online meeting together with FICIL’s work group leaders to discuss the most topical issues currently on the table of the work groups, and to outline the way forward up to the expected High Council meeting in September. In 2021 FICIL will focus on four main overarching areas – human capital, digitalization, green economy, and rule of law. 

On February 9, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced that its president Suzanne Clark has been appointed the next CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, effective March 11. Clark succeeds Tom Donohue, who has led the organization for 24 years. Clark currently serves as the president of the U.S. Chamber, a director on two corporate boards, and she is a former business owner.

The Baltic-American Freedom Foundation (BAFF) is announcing call for applications for their Baltic-American Dialogue Program. All Baltic NGOs, public institutions, universities, chambers panning to invite lecturers or experts from the U.S. for the events and projects taking place from September 2021 till end of May 2022, are welcome to submit their applications to BAFF. Apply until April 1, 2021: HERE!
 

VA Government introduces their February Policy Outlook - a quarterly report on general political and policy developments in Latvia. It takes a look at the recent changes in the government composition and the allocation of the Recovery and resilience facility funding in Latvia.

CBRE Baltics has recently published two reports: their Baltic Industrial Marketview for 2020/2021 and Baltic Investment Marketview for 2020. The industrial space segment was able to maintain high rates of growth despite the pandemic and a shortage of core investment products drained the interest of foreign investors significantly, leading to an increasing market share for local and regional investors. 

PwC Latvija invites to participate in PwC's Annual Baltic CEO Survey by joining more than 1,300 other CEOs, including Baltics, in sharing thoughts on the business environment and challenges. It will be open by March 1, 2021.

February 2021

Welcome to our latest newsletter. This month we met with Mayor of Riga and the Director of the Data State Inspectorate of Latvia. We hosted the Thought Leaders Series discussion for top-tier members with members sharing best practices on managing the COVID-19 crisis. We also had an opportunity to learn about the latest changes in Tax legislation from Sorainen.

We are now getting ready for the online Annual General Meeting on March 11th, and encourage your participation and vote, which is very important for the Chamber's future.

We have prepared a lot of exciting opportunities for you in the coming month, and we hope you will join one of our online events!

Upcoming events

Mar 02, 2021

from 15:00 till 16:00

Mar 10, 2021

from 15:00 till 16:00

Mar 17, 2021

from 13:00 till 14:00

Mar 17, 2021

from 20:00 till 21:00

Mar 26, 2021

from 15:00 till 16:00

Apr 08, 2021

from 16:00 till 17:00

Apr 22, 2021

from 20:00 till 21:00

Special Offers

Applying AI and machine learning in digital publishing

Online Mentoring Program by AmCham Sweden

Office away from office at AC Hotel by Marriott Riga