There is enough money in the financial markets, there is a lack of ambition to look beyond Latvia’s borders and knowledge – this is the main conclusion of the tripartite discussion between the bank, stock exchange and business representatives. Daiga Auziņa-Melalksne, head of the NASDAQ Riga exchange, Andris Bite, president of the Confederation of Latvian Employers and member of the board of SIA Karavela, as well as Roberts Idelsons, chairman of the board of Signet Bank, took part in the conversation.
What are the ambitions of Latvian entrepreneurs? Can the current time be called a crisis, when you have to think about the possibility not only of buying equipment or building a new workshop, but also about mergers, takeovers, foreign markets?
Andris Bite: First of all, I will say that there is no crisis yet. There is a slight slowdown in the ball that went on for two years. The ball was not bad for the manufacturing and exporting sphere. Of course, there are exceptions – tourism and hospitality. However, it must be said that the return to normality is currently underway. Yes, there is a slight drop in the beginning, but I don’t think it will be for a long time.
Speaking about entrepreneurship and ambitions in a broad spectrum, it must be said that they are weak, really weak. That’s putting it mildly. In my opinion, long-term neglect of the business environment has created a wrong perception in the society, therefore entrepreneurs also see the reality badly, and finally, going around the circle, the perception is also wrong from the side of the state. In general, speaking in agricultural terms, we have got a depleted soil in which nothing really wants to grow. Paraphrasing the analogy, there are few entrepreneurs who have the ambition to go outside the country, to operate more widely, to take away someone’s markets, to create new markets for themselves. This proportion to the population – active entrepreneurs to the total number – is very small. Why? Historically, the entrepreneur is not the most loved passenger on this ship – Latvia.
