On September 16, U.S. Ambassador John Carwile met with members of all three Baltic AmChams in the luncheon held within the Pan-Baltic conference program. In his speech, the Ambassador focused on geopolitical security, the war in Ukraine as well as bilateral relations between Latvia and the U.S. The Ambassador emphasized the U.S. unwavering commitment to Ukraine and highlighted the important role of energy security in the region.

On September 15, Artis Pabriks, Minister of Defense of Latvia addressed members of all three Baltic AmChams within the Pan-Baltic conference on NATO Strategic concept, support to Ukraine, NATO enlargement as well as the role of the private sector in ensuring the national and economic security. A live discussion was moderated by Martins Vargulis of the Latvian Institute of Foreign Affairs.

On September 15-16, members of all three Baltic AmChams gathered in Riga for the 5th Pan-Baltic conference with an aim to embrace cooperation, communication, and exchange of best practices among AmCham members across the Baltic countries. The 2-day program featured sessions on defense and security, labor force availability, healthcare, digital transformation and cybersecurity as well as included visits to MikroTik, Children’s University Hospital and Children' s University Foundation. Huge thanks to supporters Medtronic, Roche, Skaal, and all our amazing colleagues!

On September 12, AmCham together with FICIL and other leading foreign Chambers in Latvia held a pre-election debate with prime ministerial candidates and leaders of the leading political parties focusing on the critical issues for the development of Latvia's national economy and the attraction and retention of foreign investments such as increasing competitiveness and strengthening the economy under the current geopolitical circumstances. To revisit the event.

On September 7, FICIL High Council three-day meeting kicked off with a reception at the President’s Residence. On September 8, FICIL members held a members' meeting joined by Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš to address the business environment development. On September 9, representatives of the government, ministries and FICIL discussed priority areas to improve the country's competitiveness such as the promotion of energy independence, the fight against the shadow economy and the digitization of the public sector to accelerate and improve the exchange of data between institutions.