Newsletter

Exploring the hottest venue in Old Town - BURZMA

On May 30, members had an excellent opportunity to join Business After Hours kindly hosted by CBRE Baltics and Kirson Design Group at the hottest venue "Burzma" with 11 street food units and the Holy Sip bar located in the Old Town at the Galerija Centrs 4th floor. We are grateful to both hosts for such an excellent event, outstanding pizzas and delicious cocktails. Read more

Enjoying American music

On May 24, members and their guests were invited to the first American Music Night at live music bar "Sidrerija". It was a fun event and a truly unique opportunity to experience American culture and live music played by the band "SugarSugar" in the company of friends. The band played rock'n'roll, blues and rock covers of the many great songs from the artists' Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Eddie Cochran, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix and others. Read more

Prioritizing the human capital development

On May 18, AmCham held the next Thought Leaders Series with Anda Caksa, Minister of Education and Science, which was attended by our Corporate Contributing members and Labor Force work group representatives. The Minister outlined her priorities and the government’s plans with regard to upskilling or reskilling the existing workforce and ways to promote a culture of cooperation between universities and the industry to lessen the mismatch between the quality of education received and labor market demands. Read more

Strengthening Transatlantic partnerships and connections

On May 8-12, AmChams in Europe met for an annual U.S. conference in Washington D.C. and Houston, Texas to highlight the significance of transatlantic relations and obtain important insights into the U.S. economic and political landscape. Executive Directors from 25 AmChams from across Europe and Eurasia had the opportunity to visit U.S. government institutions and agencies as well as some of the largest and most innovative companies, including APCO, Politico, Collins Aerospace, Honeywell, and ExxonMobil. AmCham Latvia was represented by its Executive Director Liga Smildzina-Bertulsone. Read more

Discussing ways to improve the investment environment

On May 16, AmCham Investment work group members gathered for another meeting to discuss ways to improve the investment environment and promote Latvia as an FDI destination. The group is looking at how to promote the impact of FDI on the economy and will gather best practices from the AmCham network in Europe. Read more

The importance of AmCham values and future development

AmCham marks its 30th anniversary this year. On this important occasion, Kerli Vares, AmCham Board Member and Head of Luminor in Latvia speaks on the role of AmCham in Latvia's business environment: "AmCham has managed to create an environment that brings together expertise, knowledge, and ideas and Luminor welcomes any effort that can advance and better local business space that also benefits the well-being of our society." Watch the video!

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Rauls Velins joins the AmCham Board

Rauls Velins, General Manager of Roche Latvija has joined the AmCham Board of Directors to replace Dita Erna Sile who stepped down from her position on April 26. Rauls assumes the Board position immediately and will serve the remainder of Dita’s term until March 2024. Read more

Welcome BluOr Bank to AmCham

BluOr Bank, a bank for business and entrepreneurs, has recently joined the Chamber as a Corporate Contributing member. The bank's goal is to help empower its clients to attain long-term success. Clients do not just choose BluOr Bank’s products and services – they choose BluOr Bank as a partner. A warm welcome to BluOr Bank! Read more

Tech Recruitment joins AmCham

Tech Recruitment, a company delivering high-standard IT, tech recruitment services, and executive search on a global scale, has joined the Chamber as a Small Business member. The team possesses international experience in recruitment, HR, executive search and business development within global organizations, both in-house and agency. A warm welcome to AmCham! Read more

Janis Paksis becomes a member

Janis Paksis, a professional with more than 20 years of experience in leadership, business, and technologies management, has recently joined AmCham as an individual member. He is a business technologies expert passionate about the development of businesses, services, products, and offerings using the latest innovations, approaches, and technologies. A warm welcome to the AmCham community! Read more

ISP Optics Latvia invests over €438 000 in new equipment

ISP Optics Latvia has agreed with Swedbank to invest more than 438 thousand euros into the production of new equipment that will allow the company to expand its optical lens production activities by providing advanced coating technologies. The upgraded technologies will offer a more diverse range of coating products and will also reduce the negative environmental impact of production. ISP Optics has been operating for 32 years, employs 100 people, and has a net turnover exceeding 13 million euros. Read more

airBaltic receives the 2023 APEX Passenger Choice Award

On May 24, airBaltic received the 2023 APEX Passenger Choice Award for Best Cabin Service in Europe, recognizing the airline’s onboard service and hospitality efforts. The APEX Passenger Choice Award is one of the most prestigious awards an airline can receive in recognition for their best-in-world advancements in cabin service, seat comfort, entertainment, and more. Read more

New director for Riga Business School

After the selection of candidates by the nomination committee and the approval of the RTU rector, on June 26 of this year, Claudio Rivera will become the director of Riga Business School. In the role of director, Claudio Rivera will replace the long-time director of Riga Business School, Jānis Grēviņš. Read more

Delna publishes guidelines for handling alarm reports

Delna has recently developed "Guidelines for handling whistleblower reports" explaining what responsible persons in institutions, companies, and organizations should consider when reviewing whistleblower reports. The guidelines are available HERE (in Latvian). One of the most important objectives of the Whistleblowing Law is to ensure adequate protection of whistleblowers. Read more

U.S. Chamber Statement on Meta Data Fine

Following the recent announcement of a significant fine against Meta along with an order for the company to halt transatlantic data transfers, the U.S Chamber of Commerce issued a public statement highlighting the urgent need to finalize and implement the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework on May 22, 2023. Read more

Industry concerned over the EU Cybersecurity Certification Scheme for Cloud Services

AmCham EU along with 12 other organizations, calls for a swift adoption of a workable and non-discriminatory EU Cybersecurity Certification Scheme. Transparency, stakeholder involvement, digital sovereignty requirements and clarity with other EU legislation are just some of the areas that must be addressed. Any EU cybersecurity certification scheme should focus on technical measures to strengthen security and resiliency and, it should rely on and be aligned with consensus-based international standards that have proven to be efficient by way of broad industry adoption. Read more in the joint business statement.  Read more