In Brief - 2002-09-19

Sep 19, 2002

Estonia's unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent in August, down 0.1 percent from the previous month, while unemployment in Latvia and Lithuania remained unchanged.

Estonia enjoys the shortest jobless queue in the Baltics with 44,100 people. In Latvia, August unemployment was at 7.9 percent, and officials counted 94,100 unemployed.

Lithuania recorded an August unemployment rate of 10.7 percent and 186,600 registered unemployed. (Agence France-Presse)

London will wait

Plans to list Latvian Shipping Company shares on the London Stock Exchange have been delayed indefinitely until there is a more pressing need for investors, the Riga Stock Exchange said.

Guntars Kokorevics, president of the Riga exchange, said a change in ownership for a capital increase might lead to a London listing but said it was no longer considered a necessary part of the shipping company's privatization.

LASCO was auctioned off this summer. Its largest shareholder is the oil terminal Ventspils Nafta, which holds nearly 50 percent. (Baltic News Service)

Klaipeda investment

Total investment in the Klaipeda port is expected to reach nearly 475 million litas (137.6 million euros) between now and 2005, according to an investment program designed by the Klaipeda Port Authority.

The program will provide for further reconstruction of the port entrance, construction of new quays and reconstruction of existing ones.

The government was expected to approve the investment plans at a meeting Sept. 18.

Annual volume of freight handled by the port is expected to rise from 18 million tons to 22 million tons by 2005. (BNS)

JOB CUTS AT NOKIA

Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone producer, said Sept. 17 it will lay off 300 employees in its struggling network division.

The move came on the heels of a similar announcement made last month when the Finnish giant said it would trim the network division's international workforce by 900.

Of the additional job cuts, 250 would take place in Finland, Nokia officials said.

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