In Brief - 2002-11-28

Finnair to use subsidiary

Keijo Suila, chief executive of Finland's state-controlled carrier Finnair, said his airline would allow its Estonian subsidiary to serve domestic Finnish destinations to cut costs once Estonia becomes a member of the EU.

"We are trying to cut costs, and this gives us the possibility to operate - in a profitable way - the lines where we have problems with profitability," Suila said.

Earlier this year Finnair sparked controversy when it replaced some of its Finnish cabin personnel on international routes with cheaper Asian labor. Currently, the Estonian subsidiary Aero, which was the original name of Finnair when it was founded in 1923, uses one of Finnair's nine aging ATR-72 propeller planes operating out of Tallinn.

As the air travel market in the Baltic states expands, Finnair plans to set up Aero as the main airline for the three countries, all of which are set to join the EU in 2004. (Agence France Presse)

Employment in Riga

Riga has one of the lowest ratio's for employment on 44.2 percent of the total city's population among Baltic state and Nordic capitals, reported the Latvian statistics office.

Last year 330,000 residents of Riga were employed, the unemployed numbering 16,900, making up 2.3 percent of the city's population. Tallinn saw 192,600 people employed in 2001, making up 48.4 percent of the population with an unemployment rate of 6.9 percent, while Vilnius saw 242,200 employed persons last year, 43.8 percent of the total city population, making 4.1 percent unemployment.

The Latvian statistics office reported that in Helsinki the number of employed last year was on 260,600, or 47 percent of the population and 4.4 percent unemployment. The Danish capital Copenhagen saw 248,400 employed last year, or 49.8 percent of the population and unemployment at 3.1 percent.

The lowest unemployment rate for Baltic and Nordic capitals was noted last year in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik at 0.9 percent, and 49 percent of the population employed. (BNS)

Refinery waxing hopeful

The Lithuanian oil group Mazeikiu Nafta, majority owned by Russia's oil giant Yukos, is anticipating a loss of 85 million litas (24.6 million euros) for 2003, with investments into modernization estimated to reach 206.6 million litas.

According to the daily Lietuvos Rytas, Yukos expects that the oil refining margin will be more favorable next year. Besides, a brokerage services agreement with the Swiss company Petroval should ensure more acceptable prices of oil products sold via the Baltic Sea ports.

Moreover, oil prices will be more favorable in 2003, since it will be one year that crude oil will have been purchased under the agreement between Mazeikiu Nafta and Yukos. The volume of oil transportation to the Mazeikiai refinery and to the Butinge off-shore terminal should amount to 16 million tons. (BNS)

Belarus refinery sale flops

The Belarus government postponed the privatization auction of its 10.83 percent stake in Slavneft, the Russian oil group, after one bidder showed up for the sale.

The government had been seeking an initial offer of $200 million for its shares in the company, Russia's seventh largest oil producer, at the Nov. 22 auction. But only one bidder appeared - a front company representing Russia's Sibneft - which only offered a $20 million deposit for the stake under a promise to pay $210 million for the shares.

The Russian state, which holds a 74.95 percent stake in Slavneft, is to sell its stake on Dec. 18 in what is anticipated in the country's largest privatization sale ever. All of the big Russian oil companies have expressed an interest in acquiring Slavneft, which is responsible for 4 percent of Russian oil output. (AFP)

Drinking cologne in Tallinn

According to Estonia's Customs Board, 83.9 percent of the cologne imported into the country in January-September was from Ukraine, but the Ukrainian cologne only accounted for 13.1 percent of the declared value. Both toilet water and alcohol for its production can be imported into Estonia excise free.

A Customs Board spokesman said that most of the cologne imported from Ukraine, a country that has a free trade agreement with Estonia, was sold in kiosks. The spokesman added that, looking at the cologne import statistics, nearly all Estonian men should be strongly smelling of orange, raspberry or lemon after using the hundreds of tons of the cheap Ukrainian cologne.

According to customs statistics, Ukrainian toilet water accounted for 84 percent of toilet water imported into Estonia in January-September this year.

Pau said that some of the producers may actually produce the toilet water for drinking, because in some cases, considering the true purpose of the product, the producer has added to the label the words "orange flavored." (BNS)