Joint Stock Company “Development finance institution Altum” - Latvia
The RCIA regional stakeholder group meeting in Latvia was organized by the project partner SJC “Development finance institution Altum” on May 12, 2017 in Riga.
The meeting gathered 15 people in total, representing Altum, the ministries of Culture and Finance, municipalities and regional planning institutions, business incubators and co-working spaces, and associations of start-ups and business angel investors.
During the meeting, Altum introduced the participants with the RCIA project, its general goals and activities, and its implication for the region and plans to develop a new policy instrument for the benefit of CCI and cross-sectoral companies in Latvia. In addition to that, Altum shared with group the good practices and experiences learned from the first project meetup in Austria, particularly the financing schemes implemented by the lead partner aws.
These topics spurred active discussions within the group on the current state of public support for CCI companies, fragmentation and incoherence of various activities, and need for improved co-operation among the different parties and co-ordinated initiatives. The participants uniformly support the RCIA project and expressed their enthusiasm to work towards its goals. It was agreed that this stakeholder group could serve as good platform for a wider debate on issues within the CCI sector in Latvia and how to jointly come up with feasible solutions.
On a more practical level and in order to advance with the RCIA project, the group agreed that in the nearest time Altum undertakes the following tasks:
(1) to organize focus groups of CCI companies that have already been financed or declined by Altum or as potential applicants to disclose how accessible and applicable are Altum’s financing products;(2) with the assistance from the ministries to examine if the present business grant and voucher programs does not exclude or have unfavourable conditions for CCI companies; and (3) to explore possibilities to benefit from the relevant pan-European programs, like Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility provided by the European Investment Fund.
