FICIL High Council 
This year’s Foreign Investors Council in Latvia (FICIL) High Council meeting with the Government of Latvia took place on the 16th and 17th of September. During the two-day event FICIL brought special attention to areas that require urgent attention in order to ensure the competitiveness of Latvia in the long-term. These areas are green economy transformation, digitalization, human capital development, and predictability of the investment climate. Despite the wide range of policy areas covered in the discussions, some topics kept repeating on and on again. For example, the investors were pointing out the need for a centralized governance structure to deal with cross-sectoral issues involving multiple ministries and industries. Also, investors called for a long-term vision in policy making and strengthened data policy and capacity, in order to ensure data-based and research-based decision making.

Overall, FICIL is glad to see that there is a consensus between the public and private sector on what are the key issues that need to be addressed already now for Latvia to maintain its competitiveness over the long-term.

You can read more about FICIL’s meeting with the Cabinet of Ministers in an webpage article. For a full recap of the events and discussions during the High Council, please visit the FICIL High Council Meeting 2021 section, where, among other things, you will find the communique signed by the Government of Latvia and FICIL, as well as presentations.

Position papers
In preparation for the High Council meeting, FICIL’s work groups worked tirelessly to develop their Position Papers and highlight the challenges and opportunities in their specific field. The Position Papers are submitted to the policy makers and serve as the basis for discussions during the High Council. This year, FICIL prepared 11 position papers that are publicly available here. We would like to thank our work group leaders for their tremendous work on this year’s Position Papers! For a summary on key topics covered in the Position papers, please visit the article here. 

The introduction of good corporate governance and compliance systems in companies and institutions has been one of the key recommendations by the FICIL’s Investment Protection and Court Efficiency Work Group in the past three years.  FICIL has been actively involved in various processes that have led to improved clarity of what is expected from the companies as well as actual tangible improvements of the corporate governance and compliance practices of many companies. Māris Vainovskis has been active in developing the new Corporate Governance Code in Latvia as well as in other ventures. More information can be found in this article. 

FICIL work groups
The 25th High Council meeting certainly provided us with plenty of material to work with during the next season and follow-up meetings with ministries and other public sector representatives are already in works. As we are currently reflecting on the outcome of the High Council and outlining the plans for the next season, you can expect the work group process to restart towards the second half of October. Meanwhile, you are welcome to sign up for the work groups by filling in the form here or by e-mailing ficil@ficil.lv. Full list of FICIL’s work groups is available here.