Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Headlines

latvia

How to properly arrange gifts to obtain the blessing of the Anti-Corruption Bureau? A brief guide for lovers of “gratitude.”

Once the president of a country’s central bank went on a hunting trip to Kamchatka and later stated in court that the photograph in which he is sitting in what was then a highly respectable company had been doctored. He could have avoided these troubles with the photographs, prison, and legal expenses if only… he had arranged this trip as a business visit. This, by analogy, can be inferred from a certain Inc. […]

When SIF is not enough…

Then the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) can also be used. In Latvia, the authority delegated for this fund is the Ministry of Culture. The managing authority of the fund is the Ministry of the Interior, while the auditing authority is the Ministry of Finance. This fund is mainly financed from European Union resources; however, it also requires national co‑financing, which makes up 25%. “The general objective of the project is through […]

A loan of 19 million is granted for the further development of the Verde office complex

Rietumu Bank has issued a 19-million-euro loan for the further development of the Verde business quarter (1 R. Hirša Street, Riga), which envisages the construction of a new C building in addition to the two existing ones, where office space is already fully leased. The new stage of Verde’s development is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2027. Verde is being developed by the investment management company Capitalica Asset Management, […]

Fokker’s hydrogen plans in Latvia fizzled out along with Gauss’s dismissal

At the beginning of the week, Fokker Next Gen Latvia, which had previously announced that it would start work on the development of hydrogen aircraft engines in the Liepāja SEZ, initiated a liquidation process. The company’s management is not providing comments on this decision, but Inc. has obtained information from unrelated sources indicating that, among other things, the grand project has fallen through because the head of the national airline, Martin Gauss, left his position. One of Fokker […]

Opinion: SIF will decide whether to give Latvian taxpayers’ money to Estonian media; no one checks the produced publications

To some, such a headline may sound biased or tendentious, yet unfortunately it is true. That can happen. On Friday, December 5, the Society Integration Foundation (SIF) will decide whether to change the current procedure for allocating funds from the Media Support Fund (SIF), replacing the existing distribution with one that provides more money for online media. Considering that audience size is among the criteria, there is a […]

The first private artificial intelligence supercomputer cluster in the Baltics has been created

The domestic technology company Datakom and its specialized artificial intelligence department AI Datacenter Engineers have created the first private high-performance supercomputer cluster designed for running and training artificial intelligence models, informs Jūlija Pīlēna, Datakom’s marketing manager. The Datakom supercomputer cluster consists of a combination of two devices that reach a capacity of two petaflops. This means that this device every second […]

Latvia’s budget expenditures for sick leave are five times higher than Lithuania’s and 90 million higher than Estonia’s

Latvia spends 350 million euros per year on paying employees’ sick leave, while Lithuania uses only 70 million euros per year for this purpose, despite the fact that Lithuania has 40% more inhabitants, according to information compiled by LDDK. Such a huge difference arises due to the sick leave payment model. Thus, in Latvia the employee pays for their own first sick day, then 75% […]

A top 25 million euro residential design center

An unique project is being created in Riga – Aura Quarter, which will be the largest interior, design, and home furnishing retail quarter in the Baltics. It will unite more than 60 different brands and service providers, with the total area of the buildings in the first 2 stages of the quarter reaching 15,600 m², and the third stage will add approximately another 7,000 m². The total project investment amounts to 25 million euros, with financing provided by Bigbank. Aura […]

A historic deficit has begun in the computer components market

The memory shortage caused by the rapid development of artificial intelligence and data centers around the world has reached a historic level. In the business sector, computer hardware prices could increase by about 30% next year, while in the open market the rise is expected to be even sharper, an expert forecasts, pointing to significant challenges for clients in Latvia and abroad. In the global memory market, the shortage has become so great that […]

In an unfair court trial in Russia, Rietumu Bank may lose assets worth 16 million euros

The Moscow Arbitration Court on 2 December 2025 examined a civil case related to a claim by the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office against Rietumu Bank and other persons. The court of first instance has decided to satisfy the claim of the General Prosecutor’s Office. The Bank’s regulatory capital may decrease by approximately 4 million EUR. Considering that this is a decision of the court of first instance, the Bank will appeal it in accordance with the procedure prescribed by law, defending […]