The central theme of the conference this year was the digital economy, which grows seven times faster than the rest of the economy, and is the main engine of innovation, competitiveness and productivity today. The digital economy has huge untapped potential for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Latvia and the European Union, therefore this year's conference was organized in cooperation with the European Commission Representation in Latvia and the Latvian Information and communications technology association.
Conference "New Challenges of Economic and Business Development: The Digital Economy - 2017" took place at the UL FBME from May 18th until May 20th, with 150 participants from 15 countries. In conference there were presented the latest scientific research in economics, business and management science, but the most valuable findings of the reports were summarized in a collection of articles published electronically for everyone interested: