Atea Global Services is part of the Atea Group – a leading Nordic IT infrastructure company and the 2nd largest in Europe with more than 7.000 employees and a revenue of more than EUR 3.5 billion in 2017. It provides managed services focusing on the digital workplace.
Kalniņa-Lukaševica highlighted the performance of Atea Global Services in terms of fair trade criteria.
"This year’s recipient of the award has not only treated its employees and cooperation partners in a responsible manner, but also launched initiatives for the information technology sector as a whole and got engaged in public support activities," a Ministry of Foreign Affairs release said.
As she presented the award, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica underlined that the COVID-19 pandemic and various restrictions experienced because of it have aggravated problems encountered by countries, people and businesses, as well as providing fresh evidence of the significant role played by smart technologies in dealing with various crises. State-of-the-art information and communication technologies have enabled companies and public administration to continue operating also under restrictions imposed during the crisis.
The CEO of the Institute for Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility and Coordinator for the Sustainability Index, Dace Helmane, also drew attention to the role of information and communication technologies in the development of a sustainable and high quality corporate environment. According to her, the prevailing public perception of fair trade principles as being applicable only to manufacturing companies is erroneous.
The Fair Trade Award is an initiative of the Foreign Ministry to give credit to companies observing, in their foreign trade and manufacturing, the principles of corporate social responsibility established by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The Fair Trade Award was established in 2015 as one of the activities jointly implemented by the Foreign Ministry, the Institute for Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility, and the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry during the European Year for Development. Companies are assessed according to criteria laid down by experts from the Institute for Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility in line with the Sustainability Index.
In 2015, the Fair Trade Award was presented to SIA Schwenk Latvija, in 2016 – VAS Latvenergo, in 2017 – SIA RIMI Latvia, in 2018 – AS SEB banka, and in 2019 – SIA Latvijas Mobilais Telefons.
