Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

The state owns 65 enterprises and holds capital shares in some others.

Vilks said that revenues of state-owned enterprises are growing every year, and last year the aggregate revenue reached EUR 3.26 billion, while the capital return was positive at 14.9%. As many as 50,000 people are employed in state-owned enterprises.

The biggest revenue is ensured by such companies as Latvenergo power utility, Latvijas Valsts Mezi state forest manager, and companies in which the state holds shares – Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT) and Lattelecom telecommunications operators. Meanwhile, negative results were presented by companies that deal with problematic assets – Reverta and Hiponia.

According to Vilks, there is work underway on development of medium-term strategies for state-owned enterprises. So far 40 strategies have already been approved.

PKC today organized a conference dedicated to the reform of state-owned enterprise governance to discuss performance of the reform, identify what should be done to improve state-owned enterprise governance.

PKC said that more than five years have passed since the reform was started and slightly more than two years have passed since PKC has been in charge of coordination of the reform, and more than year has passed since Latvia jointed the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), continuing to improve governance of state assets in line with the good corporate governance principles.