Friday News: 30 September 2016

Dear Members and Friends,

This Tuesday we had the Monthly Dinner with Tim Colley, Head of the Mission at the British Embassy Riga. Photos and description of the event can be found below.

Our big news this week is that we announced a new project - the BritCham Academy! The first event of the Academy will take place on 12 October - read more about it below or on BritCham website.

Contents

Upcoming Events

• BritCham Academy: Purposeful Branding - Making Profit and World a Better Place At The Same Time on 12 October NEW
• Save the date! New Members' Evening on 18 October 

News

• Monthly Dinner with Tim Colley, Head of the Mission at the British Embassy Riga NEW
• Joint Chamber Luncheon with NATO Integration Unit
• FICIL: Pilot Project – Mediation In Tax Disputes NEW
• Kronbergs & Čukste Joins DERLING Network Of Law Firms NEW
• Update on FICIL Work Groups 
• Seed Forum Riga Investor Conference

Member to Member Offers

• Member to Member Offer of the Week NEW

Upcoming Events

BritCham Academy: Purposeful Branding - Making Profit and World a Better Place At The Same Time

View full size poster here.

On 12 October at 9:00 we invite you to the opening session of a new BritCham project - the BritCham Academy. The Academy is planned as a series of monthly morning seminars covering different topics that will be oriented on various company departments - Marketing, HR, Finances and others. 

Our morning seminars will give an opportunity to BritCham members to gain knowledge about the newest business trends, hot topics and dream projects. BritCham Academy will be for learning and sharing. Each attendee in addition to the seminar and discussion will be invited to introduce themselves.

Both prior and after the event there will be time for the attendees to talk about business.

To acknowledge the most active attendees, the BritCham Academy will issue a certificate for those who will attend 3 and more sessions during the season.

TOPIC OF THE OPENING SEMINAR ON 12 OCTOBER:

PURPOSEFUL BRANDING - MAKING PROFIT AND WORLD A BETTER PLACE AT THE SAME TIME

SPEAKER: 
Edgars Pētersons, strategic planner and partner at creative agency Weekend. Major projects include LMT rebranding, building of Zelta Zivtina brand, Swedbank rebranding and development of other leading Latvian brands. Since April 2015 he is successfully developing his own agency that works with brands like Bite, Rimi Baltic, Jameson and others.

VENUE:
SemaraH Hotel Metropole, Aspazijas bulv. 36/38, Riga

ADMISSION:
FREE for BritCham members
EUR 35 for non- members
Breakfast buffet from 7:00 – 10:30 for a special price of EUR 8 (optional)

REGISTRATION:
Website sign-up, email events@britcham.lv or call 25 45 6000

News

Monthly Dinner with Tim Colley, Head of the Mission at the British Embassy Riga

This week at the BritCham's first Monthly Dinner of the new season we had one, if not the most active discussion we have had at our dinners. 

Our guest of honour was Tim Colley, Head of the Mission at the British Embassy in Riga who very graciously explained UK governments current stance on Brexit and what actions might be taken in the future. Encouraged by Tim our members eagerly expressed their opinions and asked their questions starting a discussion that continued throughout the evening.

We would like to express our gratitude to Tim for addressing the guests and creating such amiable mood where all felt free to speak their minds.

Joint Chamber Luncheon with NATO Force Integration Unit Latvia

On 22 September together with the American, Canadian, Norwegian and Swedish Chambers of Commerce we had the Joint Chamber Luncheon with NATO Force Integration Unit (NFIU) Latvia. 

At the Luncheon the keynote speaker was Lieutenant Colonel Simon Badman from Great Britain, who was joined on the stage by Major Ilmārs Šķesters and Jūlija Rumjanceva from Latvia, Major Andrew Carrigan from the United States, Major Bjorn Vikas and Major Beathe-Kristin Andestad from Norway. Mr Badman gave an overview of the establishment of the headquarters, the tasks and ongoing activities of NFIU as well as the security challenges in the region and the opportunities for cooperation with the business community.

Read more about the Luncheon here. 

You can find out more about NFIU Latvia here. Or take a look at the NFIU's presentation here.

FICIL: Pilot Project – Mediation In Tax Disputes

Foreign Investors' Council in Latvia (FICIL) has launched a pilot project with the Ministry of Finance “Mediation in Tax disputes”. FICIL are now looking for partners from their corporate and associate members. 

Background and aim of the project
The aim of the FICIL pilot project is to find and highlight benefits of mediation for tax payers and State Revenue Service, perform mediation within the existing legal administrative process framework (where mediation is not envisaged yet) and on the basis of the pilot project results offer amendments to the legislation in order to introduce mediation as fully legitimate way of handling certain kinds of tax disputes.
The idea for this project is a follow up from our position paper “Facilitating Efficiency of the Court System in 2013” where we suggested introducing mediation principle in Latvian legislation and which in 2014 resulted in the Law on Mediation in civil disputes. In a number of Tax position papers we have asked for introduction of mediation in Tax disputes as well. The mediation pilot project aims to test the idea in practice. The pilot project is discussed and supported by the Ministry of Finance, from FICIL side it is led by Mrs Baiba Strupiša, Eversheds.

To find out about your opportunity to participate please click here. 

If you have any questions or would like to receive more information, please contact FICIL:
67 217 201 or ficil@ficil.lv 

Kronbergs & Čukste Joins DERLING Network Of Law Firms

Kronbergs & Čukste is pleased to inform that they have co-founded a new quality Pan Baltic network known as the DERLING by combining three very experienced leading Baltic law firm teams committed to bringing hassle-free top quality legal services to their clients.

Their partners in the DERLING network of law firms are DOMINAS DERLING in Lithuania and DERLING in Estonia. Henceforth, their law firm shall be known as KRONBERGS ČUKSTE DERLING.

For more information, please visit their website: www.kcderling.lv.

Update on FICIL Work Groups

At the start of the new autumn season the Foreign Investors' Council in Latvia (FICIL) has sent an update on the status of their work groups. In this newsletter you can find a list of FICIL's recent work groups and a short description of issues the group has been lately focusing on, as well as sign up to a group.

We would like to encourage our members to sign up to the work groups of your interest – this is your possibility to follow and influence the work of the respective group. Those who are already members of a group, need not to re-apply. Also, depending on your interest and activity, FICIL will be able to see which sectors and areas they need to address at the next year’s High Council meeting.

In case you encounter any problem signing up, please do contact FICIL office by email ficil@ficil.lv

Seed Forum Riga Investor Conference

BritCham Members and friends are kindly invited to participate in Seed Forum Riga Investor conference on Thursday 13 October 2016 kindly hosted in the Conference hall Citadele, Republikas laukums 2A, Riga, 3rd floor (entrance from the river's side).

Seed Forum Riga Investor conference is a match-making event for financial investors (private investors and venture capital funds) and perspective growth companies from Latvia and neighboring countries, who have participated in Seed Forum Process, have been educated, trained and deemed suitable subsequent to a selection process by the Seed Forum Selection Panel and now - are looking for financial investors to develop further their business concepts.

Read full description here.

Please register here.

Should you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact Ms. Elina Fomina at +371 29420055 or elina@seedforum.org

Member to Member Offers

Member to Member Offer

Did you know that Oviwatch offers BritCham Members a regular offer?

20% off on any OVi Watch of your choice

For details, please contact Zintis Snitceris at +371 29884677 or Davis Paipa +371 26844741
Or email: info@oviwatch.com

View the offer here.

Check Out Current Member-to-Member Offers, Use Them Actively & Add Your Offer.

Gallery of Past Events

BritCham Platinum Members

How to Publish Information in BritCham Friday News?

Would you like to share information with other members by publishing it in BritCham Friday News and/or on our website, facebook, or twitter?

You can do it by contacting Santa Rudzite by e-mail santa.rudzite@britcham.lv or by calling: (+371) 25 45 6000. Please point out when you would like the information to be published; however, if you wish the information to be published in the current week's Friday News, it needs to be sent in by Wednesday afternoon. Information received latter will be published in the next week’s Friday News.