Appropriate discount rate for forestry is still an issue for the forest economy. Therefore, it is significant to understand the importance of discounting, and how costs of forestry production process are valued. Forest regeneration and new stands tending costs are considered as investments; they are related to each particular stand. For that reason, the goal of this study was to compare how the value of this investment is growing at the bank deposit or 1 ha forest stand. The study examined the growth rate of two different tree species value with young forest stand establishment and tending investments depositing in the bank or the growth rate of compound interests. As discounting formula derived from a compounding formula, it would allow to find an appropriate discount rate for each timber species. High rates of compound interest cause a very rapid and unrealistic future value increase, while low rates cause slow value increase for a very long period represented by a common forest rotation; for that reason high discount rates used in forestry are not rational. Taking into account an income from intermediate cuttings, the value of timber species in comparison with the deposit significantly improves. Suitable discount rate determination in forest assessment is mainly determined by the species of wood productivity and cutting age. As it is hard to find two identical forest properties, each situation should be considered individually, taking into account and understanding the relationship between a growth rate of timber and compound interests, thus choosing an appropriate discount rate.

Rapid technology development has had an evident impact on the financial sector during the last eight years. The financial sector experiences changes and it is important for the contemporary financial organizations to set a sustainable business perspective through competency management to ensure competitiveness. The current paper additionally focusses on fintech. Information technology development and competency management are the basis of the research. Authors of this research performed literature review to clarify the technology management competency model proposed by Doggett, McGee and Scott (2013) with the purpose of customizing the model for finance and technology knowledge-intensive fintech companies.

The development of information and communication technologies (ICT) has a significant impact on the business model of companies operating in the financial sector. Digital transformation leads to changing existing business model rapidly, as well as necessity of developing new processes specifically related to the use of ICT in business processes, development of new products and updating existing ones. At present, changes in the demand for ICT related processes in financial sector are observed both through the development of different technologies and their applications core or ancillary processes (e.g. innovations in payment systems including crypto currencies, blockchain-assisted smart contract, credit markets and insurance including peer-to-peer lending). Based on the opportunities offered by ICT, new business models need to be developed in the financial sector to transform these capabilities into new products and services that respond to changing customer demand. The aim of research to investigate the changes taking place in financial sector in the light of developments in ICT for acquisition of necessary competencies. Research methodology includes systematic review of scientific literature, analysis of selected financial sector statistics, semi-structured industry expert interviews and statistics analysis. The empirical study is limited to the financial sector of Latvia. Although due to the global nature of the financial sector the research findings could be applied internationally.

Innovative activity of small and medium-sized enterprises is one of the factors for effective business. The aim of the article is to determine the innovative activities of small and medium-sized businesses in the frontier regions of Latvia (Latgale region), Lithuania (Vilnius region, Alytus region, Utena region, Panevezys region, Kaunas region), Belarus (Vitebsk region, Grodno region, Minsk region, Mogilev region). The novelty of the research has a cognitive character: the authors have determined the level of innovation potential for small and medium-sized enterprises in the regions, which is characterized by a complex of various resources, the amount of the production of innovative product and innovative technology, service in the regions, the branch structure of innovations in the regions, dominance of certain models of innovative entrepreneurship on the basis of innovative process organization in the companies located in the frontier regions has been established. The following methods are used for the research: logical analysis and synthesis, monographic and analytical method for studying economic theoretical and empirical sources of the international level, quantitative and statistical methods of data processing – frequency analysis, sampling; for the collection of the initial primary data the instrument of questionnaire was used.

Currently one of the hottest local governments’ issues on the agenda of the government of Latvia is the elaboration of new improved local government finance equalization system, which is an important integral element of the implementation of regional development policy. Local government finance equalization is affecting development capacity of any territory, including rural territories. The purpose of the article is to highlight and discuss in academic society the finance equalization issues that affect the rural municipalities and work out proposals for the new system. The study does not cover all local government finance equalization system’s elements, but gives attention to three – importance of the equalization for rural local governments – municipalities (novads); revenue sources, that are necessary to include in the equalization system; criteria for calculation of local governments’ expenditure needs.