{"id":1036,"date":"2023-11-09T16:20:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T14:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/?post_type=news&p=1036"},"modified":"2023-11-09T16:23:30","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T14:23:30","slug":"latvijas-davosa-pasaules-latviesu-ekonomikas-un-inovaciju-forums","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/en\/news\/latvijas-davosa-pasaules-latviesu-ekonomikas-un-inovaciju-forums\/","title":{"rendered":"Latvian Davos \u2013 The World Latvian Economic and Innovation Forum"},"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","news_category":[16],"class_list":["post-1036","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_category-viedoklis"],"acf":{"content":"

Latvian Davos \u2013 The World Latvian Economic and Innovation Forum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once a year the global political, civil society and corporate elite gather in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum (WEF) to \u201caddress the state of the world and discuss priorities for the year ahead.\u201d
\nThe World Economic Forum is quite the club. It has 1200 members and describes its mission as “improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas”.
\nThe cost of attending the WEF starts from around 120 000 euro per person for those that want the highest level of access. Of course this does not include 60 euro Caesar salads or accommodations that cost thousands per night.
\nSo what is the big deal? Why would anyone pay that much money to attend key note speeches and panel discussions? Networking and access.
\nIt turns out that networking and access is big business. Last year the WEF\u2019s revenues were 390 million euros. This might seem like a large amount of money, but it is small change in the context of the connections that it helps enable.
\nIn our globalized world international connections are powerful and important. This is why ten years ago J\u0101nis Kukainis then president of the World Federation of Free Latvians (WFFL) decided that Latvia and its diaspora needed its own forum to meet and forge impactful connections.
\nLatvia was still recovering from the economic and social ravages of the Great Financial Crisis and the leadership of the WFFL decided that it had to do everything in its power to attract investment to Latvia. The forum\u2019s aim was to highlight success stories from both Latvia and the Latvian diaspora and to bring together high achievers with a passionate interest in the continued development and sustainable growth of the Latvian economy.
\nThey named the forum the \u201cWorld Latvian Economic and Innovation Forum\u201d and they decided to organize the event during the Latvian Song and Dance festival since many prominent members of the diaspora would be in Riga.
\nThis year marks the tenth anniversary of the first WLEIF and this year\u2019s WLEIF took place on July 5th \u2013 also during the Song and Dance festival.
\nAccording to its website, \u201cWLEIF aims to promote Latvia’s economic growth by strengthening cooperation between professionals working in different business sectors in Latvia and worldwide, to attract innovation, financial and knowledge capital to Latvia, and to strengthen the belonging of Latvians living outside Latvia to Latvia.\u201d (more information at www.wleif.lv)
\nThe World Latvian Economic and Innovation Forum is organized by the World Association of Free Latvians and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, in cooperation with ERDA and the American Chamber of Commerce in Latvia, The Red Jackets and others.
\nThis year\u2019s event features a star-studded constellation of speakers and presenters that represent Latvia\u2019s business and political elite. However, unlike the WEF, WLEIF is free to attend – you just have to register.
\nThis year WLEIF addressed the forces that would define our growth and prosperity over the foreseeable future.
\nFeatured speakers included Latvia\u2019s current president Edgars Rink\u0113vi\u010ds, expresident Egils Levits, prime minister Kri\u0161j\u0101nis Kari\u0146\u0161, the president of the WFFL P\u0113teris Blumbergs and the exmayor of Riga M\u0101rti\u0146\u0161 Sta\u0137is as well as leaders of industry such as the chairman of Luminor Bank Nils Melngailis, John Tully chairman of Mikrotik and the American Chamber of Commerce in Latvia and Martin Gauss CEO of airBaltic.
\nIn addition to key note speakers, panel discussions covered a broad array of topics \u2013 all of which would play an important role in Latvia\u2019s future economic success. One part of the forum focuses on \u2018services\u2019 – how international investors see Latvia and how we intend to attract new capital and tourist flows, as well as how we are building our 21st century transportation and communication networks.
\nAnother theme at the forum \u2013 people; \u2013 how municipalities attract businesses and how we can encourage remigration, as would as strategies to ensure talent retention and upskilling.
\nThe third theme – innovation. I am particularly excited about the discussion titled \u201cBio Frontier: The Future of Latvia\u2019s Healthcare and Biotech Sectors\u201d. As you may or not be aware the first generation of post-world war two Latvian refugees abroad put a very strong emphasis on education. The result was a generation that included an inordinate amount of very successful doctors, perhaps most notably Kristaps Zari\u0146\u0161 \u2013 Professor Emeritus of Stanford University \u2013 who will be participating in this discussion.
\nThere are absolutely incredible technological developments that are currently taking place in the biomedical field, and I look forward to hearing what sort of role this industry could play in Latvia\u2019s future: both in terms of our healthcare system as well as creating innovations that could be in high demand internationally.
\nThere was also a panel on Latvia\u2019s future energy policy which I have had the privilege of moderating. The world is on the brink of largest energy transition in history and Latvia has the opportunity to show initiative, pragmatism and leadership is shaping its transition to carbon neutrality.
\nWhen WLEIF was founded, part of the ambition was that we would start to celebrate our successes in business the way that we celebrate our culture, and work in concert to create economic opportunity.
\nI moved to Latvia in 2008 \u2013 just as the great financial crisis was starting to wreak havoc on the Latvian economy. The great financial crisis shook our nation\u2019s confidence and led to a mass exodus of inhabitants. It took years for people to stop asking me why I actually chose to live in Latvia if I could live in Canada. Many talented people moved abroad and we still feel the pain from a human capital perspective to this day.
\nWLEIF cannot solve all of our challenges through one day of discussions, but it can continue to build bridges and bring Latvians and friends of Latvia around the world closer together through the power of private initiative and personal connection. It aims at sparking ideas, it manifests goodwill and intent, it inspires.
\nUnlike the WEF at Davos, you do not have to pay hundreds of thousands to attend, but you have the chance to introduce yourself and have a chat with someone whose insight and experience could motivate and guide you and might just change the world as you know it. Or you could meet the next gifted Latvian entrepreneur who has fire and brilliance, but is looking for capital. The possibilities are legion.
\nWLEIF draws on the success of Latvia and Latvians, and encourages cooperation by several stakeholders in our nation\u2019s future. Whereas the WEF is mostly a theatre of posturing and global platitudes, WLEIF\u2019s participants are looking to work together to build on immediate opportunities that will benefit Latvia. It will also be a showcase of one of foremost advantages of Latvia\u2019s business environment: the proximity of personal connection. Whatever you are interested in doing, there is an extremely high probability that another WLEIF participant knows someone that they could introduce you to help actualize your ambitions. The WEF might have inspired WLEIF, but WLEIF is by far the better forum for immediate and lasting impact.
\nThe closing concert of the XXVII Song and XVII Dance festival took place in Me\u017eaparks on July 9th. The title of the concert – \u201cUpwards Together\u201d. This also happens to be the guiding ethos of WLEIF.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in the July 2023 issue of Forbes Latvia.<\/em><\/p>\n

______________________________<\/p>\n

We have launched an industry expert article series. We publish opinion articles from members and friends of the community on the AppLV website and other channels, so if you have an important topic in mind that you want to discuss publicly<\/strong>, contact us by writing to arita@arpasaulespieredzi.lv!<\/strong><\/p>\n","video_as_thumbnail":"","gallery":[{"ID":1040,"id":1040,"title":"Pleif_cover_bilde_L","filename":"Pleif_cover_bilde_L.png","filesize":1100608,"url":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Pleif_cover_bilde_L.png","link":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/en\/news\/latvijas-davosa-pasaules-latviesu-ekonomikas-un-inovaciju-forums\/pleif_cover_bilde_l\/","alt":"","author":"2","description":"","caption":"","name":"pleif_cover_bilde_l","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":1036,"date":"2023-11-09 14:20:33","modified":"2023-11-09 14:20:38","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1200,"height":630,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Pleif_cover_bilde_L-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Pleif_cover_bilde_L-300x158.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":158,"medium_large":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Pleif_cover_bilde_L.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":403,"large":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Pleif_cover_bilde_L-1024x538.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":538,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Pleif_cover_bilde_L.png","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":630,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Pleif_cover_bilde_L.png","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":630}}],"external_gallery_url":"","additional_info":"

Autors:<\/strong> Pauls Mikla\u0161evi\u010ds, BluOr Bank Chief Investment Officer<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1036\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arpasaulespieredzi.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}