As the High Council (HC) meeting 2018 is just a week away, please take some time to read the latest updates on HC events, public panel discussion, FICIL position papers and your possibility to participate. Please also make sure you visit the section dedicated to the HC meeting at the FICIL website.
New FICIL corporate member
It is with a great pleasure that we announce that FICIL has a new member – it is AS Aldaris (Carlsberg group). Aldaris is one of the largest companies in Latvia working in beer and non-alcoholic beverage production and distribution sector, industry expert and a trendsetter. More information https://aldaris.lv/ The company is interested to work closely with FICIL membership and work groups in the areas of labour issues, education, energy and waste management and tax policy and administration. Warm welcome!
Preparations for the HC 6 – 7 June 2018
Key theme – Building Trust
Kaspars Šenvalds
Trust has been chosen as the key theme for this years’ HC meeting because it is an important element for the success of public policies, reforms and contributes to sustainable economic growth. In order to understand better the concept, FICIL members had a discussion with the distinguished philosopher Arnis Rītups who underlined the importance of trustworthiness where key founding blocs are competence, honesty and reliability.
Kaspars Šenvalds from NCH Advisors “The Member meeting was a positive surprise with a lecture on thinking and meaning of trust between social groups, companies, friends etc. It was a good reminder for everyone to stop and take time to think before making decisions.”
Photos from the discussion available here.
Meeting with the PM
The FICIL Executive Board members met with the Prime Minister in order to discuss the preparations for the HC meeting: assess the progress since the HC 2017 and look forward to the priorities for the next year.
Meetings with representatives from the Ministries
All the work groups having position paper this year (link) or last year (link) are reviewing recommendations in bilateral meetings with relevant representatives from the line ministries in order to assess progress and agree on the next steps.
Panel discussion
On the first day of the HC events, a public panel discussion will be organised. It is kindly hosted by our associate member SSER and will take place on 6 June from 13:30-17:00 (SSER, Soros Auditorium). During the public discussion “Building trust”, the FICIL, in collaboration with other experts and policy-makers will explore in more detail two important areas that could significantly contribute to the sustainable economic growth of Latvia: digital economy and tackling economic crime. Please take note that everyone is very welcome to attend, you just need to registrate here. Please read more about participants and programme here. Live streaming will be provided through FICIL social media accounts and website.
Public awareness and media
Please also note that the leaders of the FICIL active work groups in the run up to the High Council are also preparing articles, blogs, opinions about their relevant areas and recommendations. All the latest information will be appearing in dedicated section of FICIL webpage https://www.ficil.lv/category/blogs/ In case you would like to contribute to the section, please do share with us your blogs, articles by writing to ficil@www.ficil.lv
OECD conference
The FICIL Digitalisation work group leader Baiba Apine and the Tax work group leader Baiba Strupiša participated in the OECD conference ‘Justice in Commercial Law and Inclusive Growth of Latvia’. Both work group leaders presented FICIL recommendations in respective field to make improvements regarding the Commercial Law.
Plan for improving the business environment
Ministry of Economics is currently updating the Action Plan to Improve the Business Environment Latvia. This is an important document since it is directly targeted to improve the business environment and this is also where the FICIL recommendations fit in and find their way to practical implementation. There are several meetings arranged by sectors and spread out through several months; FICIL is represented by the relevant work group leaders.