Japanies acquire Latvian port operator

Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co, Ltd has acquired an 80% share in the Latvian port operator SIA Rigas Universalais Terminals (RUT), reported news2biz LATVIA.

The sale was carried out through Mitsui’s subsidiary Portek International Pte, and the sum of the deal reached EUR 21m.

RUT is a multi-purpose terminal operating at the Freeport of Riga, which is the busiest port in Latvia. In particular, Mitsui stresses that the port accounts for 70% of Latvian exports of wood products, such as lumber, furniture, wood pellets and wood chips; timber traditionally is the strongest Latvian export.

Mitsui sees Latvia and Riga as a springboard to the Eastern European market. Latvia has railway connections to Russia and Belarus and, through them, to CIS countries such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

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Latvia is 2nd in EU by the share of renewable energy

European statistics office Eurostat has summed reports that, in 2011, Latvia took the second place in EU by the share of renewable energy in its total consumption.

33.1% of all Latvian energy came from renewables and, although Latvia could not reach the EU leader Sweden with 46.8%, it did manage to leave Finland third at 31.8%.

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Latvian companies pay low salaries

Latvian investigative journalism company Re:Baltica claims that Latvian businesses tend to pay inadequately low salaries to their workers while providing them little social security or even decent working conditions, reports news2biz LATVIA..

The investigation focuses on two companies: locally-owned fish processor Gamma-A and Lithuanian-owned supermarket chain Maxima. With some 7,500 workers, Maxima is one of the largest Latvian employers.

Any mistakes or missing money had to be covered by the worker herself, even though the salary barely reaches above substinence level; having worked slightly more than a month, including lots of overtime, the journalist received LVL 280 (400 eur). Without overtime, the salary could be as low as LVL 230 a month.

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Hansabuss to cancel its Tallinn-Riga coach line

Estonian passenger bus operator AS Hansabuss has decided to close ing its Hansabuss Business Line coach service, linking Riga and Tallinn.

The route has been in operation from 2007 and altogether the company has carried more than 105,000 passengers on the route during its entire run. As the name suggests, it was aimed at business travellers and sported features such as comfortable chairs, desks and wireless Internet.

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Joining the Euro area would be a sign of Latvia’s strength and success

At his farm in Ärma today, Estonian Head of State Toomas Hendrik Ilves hosted Latvian President Andris Bērziņš. The unofficial meeting of the two leaders focused on Europe and the euro area.

President Ilves recognised Latvia’s successful preparations to join the euro area. “I understand the concerns of many Latvians when it comes to giving up your national currency. Yet the experience of Estonia and many other countries clearly proves that joining the euro area benefits our economy and general development,” the Estonian head of state said. “In Latvia’s case, the euro would be a sign of your strength and success. It would conclusively show which choices are important for Latvia as a member state of the European Union and NATO.”

President Ilves emphasised that the bold and decisive economic and financial policy of the Baltic and Nordic nations, as well as Poland, during the last crisis – which was a tough tightening of our belts – could today set an example for many a European Union member state. “A crisis does not solve itself, inactivity only deepens the crisis,” claimed the Estonian head of state.

The Estonian and Latvian presidents also spoke about the Rail Baltic high speed railway that would connect our region to the rest of Europe and is important for all Baltic nations, as well as about energy connections to other European Union member states, which would put an end to the Baltic energy island status.

The two heads of state agreed that the European Union needs a more ambitious and visible defence and security policy than hitherto.

“Threats have not disappeared from the world. To the contrary, from time to time some of them become more acute. Therefore, there are no distant lands or foreign nations, there is only a narrow perspective,” President Ilves said.

Source: Estonian Review

Latvian government agrees on a re-emigration plan

The Latvian government has passed a re-emigration plan which aims to bring back some of the Latvians who left the country before and during the recession, news2biz LATVIA writes in its recent issue.

One of the objectives of the plan is to bring more people to the labour market now that the Latvian economy is showing solid growth and the unemployment is turning to a shortage of workers – an increasing number of businesses already reports trouble finding new workers, and the Ministry of Economy estimates that there could be 120,000 vacancies in Latvia by 2030.

Some 213,000 people have left Latvia in 2000-2011, a notable number for a country that has just about 1.3m working-age residents. Altogether, the Latvian diaspora abroad could reach 350,000-400,000 people.

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The Guardian: Latvia is Russia’s playground

An ever-increasing number of Russian businesses choose to invest in Latvia, whether by starting their own companies or taking over Latvian manufacturers. Latvian banks attract large amounts of Russian money, and the European Commission fears that the Latvian banks are being used as a laundering system for dubious Russian money. According to the article, Latvian banks serve as a weak point of entry in the EU banking system.

As to the crime, the article suggests that the Latvian resort city of Jurmala, a popular summer destination for Russian tourism, is the ideal meeting place for the Russian mafia and the Russian government, where they can discuss common problems and plan joint actions.

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airBaltic to charge EUR 10 for physical check-in

Latvian airline airBaltic announced today of changes in its check-in procedures effective from February 1.

Customers who prefer traditional check-in will be charged a fee of EUR 10/LVL 7 for the service, if their ticket is purchased starting from February 1, 2013.

Personal check-in service at airBaltic airports is offered free of charge to Business Flex and Business class passengers, BalticMiles VIP card holders, passengers with children up to 2 years old, passengers requiring special service/medical assistance, and passengers travelling from airports, where self-service check-in is not available.

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Latvia prepares for 2014 eurozone accession

While Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic have shelved plans to join the common European currency anytime soon, Latvia announced that it wants to become the 18^th eurozone member in early 2014. 

Recently, Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria indicated that they would hold off on joining the single currency until the eurozone resolves its debt crisis. According to their accession treaties, all 12 members of the EU enlargement of 2004-2007, most of them from Central and Eastern Europe, have the obligation to join the euro as soon as they are ready.

Estonia joined the euro in January 2011 and has seen its economy grow. Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has vowed to bring the country’s GDP per capita into the top 5 for the EU by 2022.

In Lithuania, a non-eurozone member that is due to assume the rotating EU presidency in the second half of 2013, the economy had a good year in 2011 and economic activity is expected to increase by 2.4% in 2012.

During the economic crisis, Latvia’s economy plummeted 18%, the worst in the European Union, and it became the first EU country to seek a bailout – €7.5 billion – from a group led by the International Monetary Fund. Since then, the situation greatly improved, but the country still has to correct its excessive deficit, fight unemployment and tackle the high rates of poverty.

Read more from : EurActiv.com

Former Latvenergo executives bribed with millions of euros

Former executives of Latvian power group Latvenergo received around EUR 8 million in bribes, and were about to receive another EUR 11 million, according to Latvian law enforcement authorities.

The bribery occurred during the reconstruction of the Plavinas power plant and the Riga 2nd cogeneration plant, and may involve a total of 17 persons.

Suspects include former Latvenergo President Karlis Mikelsons who was detained in June 2010 but released in August of the same year on an LVL 50,000 bail, as well as his deputy Aigars Melko and Sadales tikls CEO Ivars Liuziniks and his deputy Andrejs Stalazs. 

It is known that Mikelsons used the proceeds through an Estonian company Isengar to buy property in Latvia. In 2007, Isengar paid 571,000 euros part of a farmhouse in Abragciemises. Five yeas ago Mikelsons had paid 30,000 euros for a waterfront residential complex.

Investigation in the case continued for two years, and fourteen countries were involved in the investigation altogether. The materials in the case are comprised in 262 files. European Anti-fraud Office and authorities in many countries assisted the Corruption Prevention Bureau.

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