Riga as an International Financial Center: Exploring Opportunities and Challenges

1. Banking Institution of Higher Education, Riga City Council and Latvian American Financial forum welcomes you in the 8t h International Conference 2006 Riga as an International Financial Center: Exploring Opportunities and Challenges 12th & 13th October, 2006 Riga, Latvia

2. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 2 1. Professional Economic Education: Problems and Solutions - 1999; 2. Competitiveness and Problems of Quality Management - 2000; 3. Qualitative Interaction of the Learned Society and New Economy - 2001; 4. Qualitative Growth of Higher Education Institutions and its Impact on the Development of Science and Economics - 2002; 5. Conditions of Sustainable Development: New Challenges and Prospects - 2003 ; 6. Knowledge Society and Implementation of Lisbon Strategy in Europe and Latvia - 2004; 7. Increasing Value of Company: New Insights and Methods - 2005

3. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 3 With our national and international business and finance education and our financial stability we ensure continuous development of our students and a high reputation in the society of Latvia and abroad PROFESSIONAL OPEN RESPONSIVE We develop creative personalities by providing excellent business and finance education VISION CORE VALUES MISSION

4. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 4 Dynamics of number of students at BIHE

5. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 5 Riga as an International Financial Centre?!

6. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 6 Riga as an International Financial Centre?! In recent years the city has become the biggest financial hub in the Baltic ... www.randburg.com/lv/ Riga Graduate School of Law Establishes The Institute of Law and Finance ... Latvia is an emerging, dynamic and sophisticted financial centre , ... www.infolex.lt Riga has the most banks in the Baltic states, so it's a financial centre . Latvia has very good Russian skills, the younger generation speak English, ... www.airbaltic.com/public

7. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 7 Riga as an International Financial Centre?! The Reval Hotel Ridzene is located in the heart of Riga's business and financial center within walking distance of nearby embassies. The hotel overlooks two ... www.riga-hotels.net/hotels/park_ridzen.htm ; ... economic growth and political success have positioned this country as an emerging financial center in northern Europe. ... riga.usembassy.gov/EN/site ... Latvias success in continuing to develop as a progressive financial center for businesses in Northern and Eastern Europe. ... riga .usembassy.gov

8. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 8 We are about to see Latvias role as an emerging financial centre in the Baltic Sea region. Address by the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Latvia, to foreign diplomatic corps in Riga November 17, 2002 Currently Riga, the economic and cultural centre of the Baltics, is recognised as a regional financial centre. Chairman of the LAFF Board, Aivis Ronis Leta, 10.04.06. Riga is the largest city in the Baltic States and serves as a major cultural, educational, political, financial , commercial and industrial center in the ... experts.about.com

9. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 9 Financial Centre A country's key location for international and domestic, commercial and government financial transactions. Financial centres are often in a country's capital e.g. Tokyo, Paris, Brussels and The City in London, but financial centres in non-capital cities include New York, Chicago, Frankfurt, Milan, Hong Kong, Sydney, Toronto and Osaka. Retrieved from " http://glossary.reuters.com/index.php/Financial_Centre "

10. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 10 London as a Financial Centre London is the banking centre of the world and Europes main business centre The headquarters of more than 100 of Europes 500 largest companies are in London. A quarter of the worlds largest financial companies have their European headquarters in London too. The London foreign exchange market is the largest in the world, with an avarae daily turnover of $504 billion, more than the New York and Tokyo combined. There are more than 550 international banks and 170 global securities houses have up offices in London. By contrast Frankfurt has around 280, Paris 270, and New York 250.

11. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 11 The worlds newest international Financial Centre is Dubai(DIFC). It opened in September 2004 It primarily serves the vast region between Western Europe and East Asia. The DIFC focuses on several sectors of financial activity: Banking Services, Capital Markets, Asset Management and Fund Registration, Insurance and Reinsurance, Islamic Finance, Business Processing Operations

12. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 12 Warsaw is developing into the financail cetre of CEE Year 2005 brought the highest annual turnover value, the record values of market capitalization and dividends and records on derivatives market;

13. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 13 List of the offshore financial centres Lebanon Liechtenstein Luxembourg Macau Malta Marianas Marshall Islands Mauritius Micronesia Montserrat Nauru Netherlands Antilles Niue Panama Philippines Puerto Rico Seychelles Singapore St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent and the Grenadines Switzerland Tahiti Tangier Thailand Turks and Caicos United States (particularly, Delaware , but some other states have offshore characteristics) Uruguay Vanuatu Western Samoa

14. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 14 List of the offshore financial centres(2) Anguilla Antigua Aruba Aruba Bahamas Bahrain Barbados Belize Bermuda British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Cook Islands Costa Rica Costa Rica Cyprus Djibouti Dominica Dublin Gibraltar Grenada Guam Guernsey Hong Kong Isle of Man Israel Japan Jersey Labuan , Malaysia

15. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 15 Luxembourg as a financial centre - conditions favourable legal and tax regimes, banking confidentiality, the flexible system in terms of banking provisions, and active measures to combatmoney laundering; rapid transposition of European Union directives; the effectiveness of its prudential supervision, skilled, multilingual workforce, convenient geographical location, competitive operating costs, particularly in terms of income tax and national insurance.

16. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 16 The conference purpose: to provide a forum for an outstanding group of international and local experts to investigate the potential for Riga in order to become an internationally recognized financial center, situated at the crossroads between the east and west.

17. The 8th annual international conference Riga as International Financial Center 17 Thank you for your attention!