Newsletter

Three Seas Summit & Business Forum

The 7th annual Three Seas Initiative (3SI) Summit and Business Forum concluded in Riga on June 21, bringing together more than 500 participants from across the Three Seas region, the U.S., Germany, Ukraine and other countries. AmChams from the Three Seas region presented a joint statement expressing full support to the region's mission to invest in the areas of energy, transport and digital infrastructure. In addition, AmChams invited stakeholders to establish a joint Executive office to raise awareness of S3I and accelerate tangible cross-country projects.  Read more

A view from the EU Parliament

On June 17, Corporate Contributing and Corporate members joined the Thought Leaders Series event with Roberts Zīle, Vice-President of the European Parliament. In addition to discussing the topic of geopolitical security, VP Zile engaged in an open discussion about energy independence, supply chain challenges and the investment environment in Latvia and in the EU.  Read more

What to consider when entering the U.S. market

On June 13, members of AmCham and the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry had an opportunity to get tips on the U.S. market entry. Experts from the U.S. Embassy in Latvia, LIAA and Slokenbergs PLLC covered such topics as immigration, legal aspects of doing business in U.S. and promotion of Latvian businesses on the U.S. East Coast. In addition, Eriks Kehris of Cubed shared his story of how to start doing business in the U.S. Read more

Foreign investors view Latvia’s investment climate as average

According to the latest FICIL Sentiment Index 2021, foreign investors rated Latvia's investment attractiveness with a score 2.9 out of 5. Investors assessed both the investment climate and policymaker efforts to improve the investment climate over the 4-year period. While investors were positive about reforms in the financial sector and higher education system, the administrative-territorial reform and the country’s tax policy, they reported the lack of progress in areas including labor force availability, effectiveness of the public sector, and a comprehensive strategy to achieve the EU Green Deal goals. Read more

The world will never be the same

On June 3, Janis Sarts, Director of NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence addressed members on the main challenges due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, reshaping of the global order and ways to secure the formation space. He touched upon the role of strategic communications in NATO, reducing the risks of disinformation and change in cyberthreat landscape. Read more

The Baltics region continues strong growth

On June 2, Swedbank hosted Business After Hours for AmCham members engaging them in a discussion about high inflation and other challenges that our economy is currently facing such as energy prices, disruption of the global supply chain, wage growth, and broad-based government support. Members enjoyed both excellent wine and food as well as an excellent panorama view of Riga from the 25th floor of Swedbank HQ building.  Read more

ATU Duty Free becomes Corporate Contributing member

ATU Duty Free, the world leader in the Duty Free market, experienced in the operation of TAV Airports and tax-free sales outlets, with a forward vision of the modern airport operations, has joined the Chamber as a Corporate Contributing member. Founded in 1999 the company provides duty free services at over 110 stores in 7 countries across 3 continents, offering passengers 50,000 products from leading world brands at advantageous prices. In the Chamber it will be represented by Tamer Cigeroglu, Latvia Operation Director. Read more

Skaal joins AmCham

Skaal, the U.S. design and development partner operationally based in Latvia, has joined the Chamber as a Corporate member. They bring ideas to life with innovative solutions in native apps, website development and implementation of the most elegant solutions by supporting systems for business, product flow and maintenance. Read more

Brainstorming session on employment matters

On June 27, members held a brainstorming session with an aim to update the AmCham position "Latvia - a career destination" on employment matters at Riga Graduate School of Law. Members also touched upon topics of employment policy and labor force availability to be addressed during two upcoming events the pre-election debate scheduled for September 12 and the Pan-Baltic AmChams conference planned for September 15-16. Read more

Discussing healthcare projects

On June 14, Healthcare work group members gathered for the last meeting before the summer break to learn about the progress of healthcare pilot projects: digital strategy, secondary data framework, VBHC approach and public health funding. Members also discussed upcoming meetings such as Pan-Baltic AmChams conference, precision medicine conference and pre-election debate. Read more

EY Attractiveness SurvEY shows FDI investment decrease in Latvia

According to EY “Attractiveness SurvEY Europe”, which analyzes investment data and gathers investor views, Latvia attracted 32 new foreign direct investment projects in 2021, which is 25% less than in 2020, but more new jobs have been created in these projects – 2,662. Last year’s data shows that Latvia ranks 5th in Europe in terms of the number of new jobs created per million inhabitants by foreign investment. Read more

Zero tolerance against corruption gains support

On May 30, the first 5 companies Bonava Latvia, the Pauls Stradiņš University Clinical Hospital, Rīgas Forests, Schwenk Latvia, and the State Real Estate Agency joined Delna and CSR Latvia initiative “Zero Tolerance Against Corruption”. They will strive to introduce and promote transparency principles, anti-corruption policies and procedures as well as publicize them internally and externally. Revisit the event! Read more