FICIL Newsletter December 2021

We hope you had a wonderful winter holiday and with the New Year fast approaching, let us look back at our activities during the month of December and see what we have planned for in the upcoming month.

FICIL Executive Board meets with the President of Latvia Mr. Egils Levits

On 24 November, FICIL Executive Board met with the President of Latvia Mr. Egils Levits to discuss and exchange opinions on how to reduce fragmentation in the public sector and improve the efficiency of the state administration. FICIL Executive Board also discussed the President’s initiative to establish the position of State Ministers.

The Executive Board highlighted that for several years FICIL has stressed the necessity to centralise planning, implementation, and coordination of policies in digitalisation, as well as the need for greater ambitions of the State to turn the challenges surrounding digitalisation and green economy into opportunities to advance the competitiveness of Latvia.

You can read the full article here

FICIL work groups

On 15 December, FICIL Labour Force & Requalification work group met with Mr. Gatis Eglītis, Minister of Welfare, and Ms. Evita Simsone, Director of the State Employment Agency, to discuss Latvia’s workforce requalification policy and centralisation of overall decision making over human capital issues. FICIL emphasised the need for efficient and centralised governance over these policies to reduce the rising skills gap, prevent unemployment, and to ensure availability of labour and sustainable economic development.

FICIL Green Economy Development work group and Digitalisation work group held multiple meetings with the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB). Promotion of data-driven policymaking is a key point on FICIL’s agenda; therefore, we were glad to hold discussions with Ms. Aija Žīgure, Head of CSB, as well as Mr. Armands Plāte, CSB’s leading expert on climate data. FICIL members had the opportunity to learn about CSB’s current priorities and plans, as well as ask their own data-related questions about specific subtopics.

This year we continued the yearly tradition and on December 17, Mr. Jānis Pleps, Legal Advisor to the President of Latvia, joined Investment Protection & Court Efficiency work group for their annual meeting to review and discuss the achievements and drawbacks of the legal system that have been highlighted by investors over the previous year. Quality of the legislation process and court efficiency were some of the key topics discussed during the meeting. FICIL has been advocating for a predictable business environment with clear rules, transparent legislative process, and predictable initiatives.

In January, the work groups are continuing discussions with the public sector. The Digitalisation work group is planning to discuss the future digitalisation strategy and Open Data Portal with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development. In same month, the Transport and Infrastructure Issues work group is scheduled to meet with Ministry of Transport to discuss its efforts in addressing the existing issues within the sector and its plans for transport sector’s green transition.

You can still sign up for FICIL 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.

To find out more, follow us on Twitter and Facebook or visit our webpage www.ficil.lv
-Your FICIL Team

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