The money is to be spent on upgrading ageing technology, particularly at a combined heat and power generation plant in the capital Riga, and will also benefit rural consumers, said Andris Siksnis.
"This deal is quite good for our customers as it will help us keep tariffs down," he added.
Opposition parties forced the government to abandon a privatization plan for Latvenergo in 2000 but the issue is widely expected to return to the agenda following national elections scheduled for October. (Agence France-Presse)
Estonia's budget gap widens
Estonia's current account deficit widened to 15 percent of gross domestic product in the first-quarter of this year, the Bank of Estonia said on June 17.
At 3.5 billion kroons ($212 million), the deficit widened by 864 million kroons from the previous quarter and by 1.93 billion kroons from the same period last year.
The quarterly deficit, the highest since 1998, boosted the 12-month deficit from 7 percent to more than 8 percent of GDP, the Baltic News Service cited bank officials as saying. (AFP)
Drawing Kaliningrad investment
A special agency will be set up to attract investment to Russia's Kaliningrad region. Kaliningrad Governor Vladimir Yegorov and former European Union Ambassador to Russia Ottokar Hahn agreed at a meeting on June 14 to form an international investment agency to draw foreign capital to the region. Hahn now serves as special European Commission adviser for the Eastern European countries that are seeking EU membership.
The new agency will mainly concentrate on investment in Kaliningrad's port and cargo shipping industry. (Baltic News Service)
Latvian Parliament OKs cig tax
The Latvian Parliament has adopted amendments to the tobacco excise tax to raise the tax for 1,000 filter cigarettes from 5.10 lats ($8.10) to 5.80 lats beginning July 1 and for rolling tobacco from 6.1 lats to 7.9 lats per kilogram.
As expected the decision has prompted protest among cigarette producers.
Leo Blaabjerg Sorenson, director of the House of Prince, Latvia's only tobacco factory, said the amendments will push up cigarette prices and promote bootlegging.
He said he fully supported excise tax increases to the level required by the European Union, but added that the Latvian Finance Ministry broke from the scheme recommended by the EU. (BNS)
World Bank consolidates
The World Bank is changing the structure of its Eastern Europe operations. Beginning Aug. 1 the World Bank division covering Poland and the Baltic states, and the unit responsible for the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia and Slovenia will be merged.
The new division's head will be Roger Grawe, who will be based in Warsaw.
Grawe began working for the World Bank in 1975 and has been head of the division overseeing the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia and Slovenia since 1997. He has also worked in Asia and Africa.
The World Bank's current director in Poland and the Baltic states, Michael Carter, will be transferred to India. (BNS)
Lithuania starts power exports to Poland
The national power transmission system operator Lietuvos Energija on June 17 launched electricity exports to Poland. It expects to sell 250 million kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity per year to Poland.
Lietuvos Energija said exports to Poland should reach about 23 million kwh of electricity in June. Lithuanian power exports to Poland will go through the Russian company Inter RAO UES.
Lietuvos Energija plans to export 548 million kwh of electricity this month, a fourfold increase from the same period last year. The total export volumes are expected to reach about 3.5 billion kwh in the first half of this year, compared with 730 million kwh in the first six months of 2001.
In June, Lietuvos Energija plans to export 210 million kwh of electricity to Belarus, 170 million kwh to Russia's Kaliningrad region, 131 million kwh to Latvia, and 14 kwh to Estonia. (BNS)
Latvia's GDP growth slides
Growth in Latvia's gross domestic product on a 12-month basis slowed to 3.8 percent in the first-quarter of this year, dropping from 6.3 percent in the fourth-quarter of 2001, the central statistics office said June 14.
Growth in the first-quarter of this year was fueled by an 8.9 percent jump in trade, a 2.9 percent rise in manufacturing and a 4.1 percent increase in business services.
Latvia's Ministry of Economy has predicted 5 percent GDP growth for this year.
Last year the economy grew 7.6 percent. (AFP)
Please enter your username and password.
2024 © The Baltic Times /Cookies Policy Privacy Policy
