President of Latvia and Ieva Tetere, Chairperson of Finance Latvia Association and Chief Executive Officer at SEB bank Latvia, and Jānis Brazovskis, Board Member at Finance Latvia Association, met today to discuss current situation in Latvia from a banking perspective.
Main topics of conversation were geopolitics, energy prices and growing impact of inflation on financial and business sectors. President and bankers talked about energy policy, stressing the need to extend government incentives for energy efficiency, infrastructure and renewables capacity upgrades.
Both sides agreed that as society transitions through various changes at the household and business level, as well as the level of national economy, active communication with public will remain crucial in understanding what causes current shifts and how to respond to them. To successfully adjust to the new global environment, Latvian government will have to continue to boost exports, business loans, investments in growth and sustainability, and reduction of administrative requirements for doing business.
Finance Latvia Association also stressed the need to modernise the government and its departments. Government needs to be more efficient in addressing horizontal priorities, such as digital transformation and sustainability, and Latvia needs an integrated vision and policies for various sectors in this regard. President of Latvia echoed a point of the Association and replied that the issue has already been raised with the parliament.