Stay in tune for 2003  

Balance of payments
Have the Baltics been living beyond their capacity for a decade?
It works – if you have creditors, The Baltic states, especially Estonia and Latvia, have seen their balance of payments, or current account deficits grow again in recent years, meaning that Baltic residents are buying more foreign goods and services than they can earn abroad themselves.  

Motorways of the Baltic Sea
A Finnish idea and European initiative
During an official visit of the Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas to Finland in May 2002, the Prime-Minister of Finland Paavo Lipponen introduced to his colleague and guest an idea that might become one of the first real breakthroughs in a new level of development for the European-Baltic transportation systems of the 21st century  

CARBO, COAL, УГОЛЬ
Replacement for petroleum and gas?
In Recent years across Europe a constant increase in demand for coal has been observed. It is quite easily explained: petroleum prices rise, coal becomes cheaper, and the requirement for energy carriers is constantly growing. In this connection there are some questions: whether coal is high-grade enough to replace petroleum? How the reorientation of freight traffics for energy carriers will effect the Baltic region? Whether ports and carriers of Baltic are ready to process the increased volumes of bulk cargo?  

Full steam for Brits in Latvia
Privatization of railways is a process that receives special attention from the state and business circles regardless of the economic situation in which it takes place. Therefore privatization and restructuring of railways in post-Soviet countries has drawn the attention of many Europeans. The UK's Secretary of Transport David Jamieson recently visited Riga to share his country’s not so successful experience in railway privatization and offer help to his Latvian colleagues moving towards Europe  

ANALYSIS OF THE EU METAMORPHOSES:
ENLARGED AND MISCONCEPTED
The long-awaited decision by the European Union on its enlargement undertaken last fall, has caused clearly mixed reactions among interested parties and observers.During the past decade, readiness to accept the new members by the EU leadership did not adequately correspond to the political needs of the countries in question, nor to the realities of international developments.  

Oil in fire
In the XX century, oil, or black gold, actively began to add oils to fire in the struggle for authority in the Middle East region, strongly having secured a label for itself of : "Oil - the blood of war"  

Who stands to gain from an economic blockade?
Ignoring Ventspils will not only harm the transit business in Latvia, but could also cause Russia over a billion dollars in federal budget losses for 2003.  

Moscow and Riga making friends - On economical terms.
In just two days of his visit to Riga, the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, and delegation, managed to visit the Riga port, the city's railcar factory, the Moscow Centre of Culture and Business (currently, under reconstruction), the Lido restaurant complex, participate in numerous negotiations and even meet Guntis Ulmanis, the Latvian ex-President, for a game of tennis  

The Lake District – a Euro-region
The Vitebsk oblast Belarus has been selected as the main Belarus region responsible for implementation of an agreement on principles of cross-border cooperation between the Belarus Republic and the Republic of Latvia. Vitebsk оblast executive committee chairman Vladimir Andreychenko told The BC about some agreements with the Baltic states  

Mutual benefit
Janis Simins, president of the Jauda energy company based in Riga, presents the company he has been working for since 1977  

Working on long-term plans
Sergei Vankov, chairman of the Council of Directors at Russia's Haitek-Raesk holding company told the BC about cooperation between Haitek-Raesk and the Latvian energy company Jauda.  

Lukashenko: Everything will be fine in Belarus
On September 17, 2002, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for nearly three hours answered questions by foreign and Belarus journalists during a live television broadcast. Contrary to expectations by certain mass media, which predicted a pre-staged show, the President delivered on his promise to answer all questions. At this news conference the Baltic states were represented by the BC and the Lithuanian Radio.  

We shouldn't be bureaucrats
The vice-president of Latvia's Trasta Komercbanka, Sergey Tarasenok, speaks on the bank’s operations on Eastern markets – a region he is familiar with far better than by stories heard  

Pan-Baltic parade
Accelerated consolidation on the Baltic market of information technologies has forced the Lithuanian company Prime Investment, previously studying the situation on local market level, to expand its field of research and include also Latvia and Estonia. This year's Deloitte&Touche TOP-50 most dynamic developing companies of Central Europe include only four companies from the Baltic states  

Lithuanian-Polish power bridge grows into Baltic project
Three years ago the prime ministers of the three Baltic states signed a document on establishing a Baltic energy market. In October 2002, in Vilnius, it was already countersigned by heads of energy sector regulators from these countries.  

On the future of European clothesware
The BC visited one of the region's largest conferences on the clothing and textiles industry held in Vilnius late last year, and now presents you with a view on the trade market in textiles from an EU aspect, voiced by William Lakin in his speech at the conference  

Latvia working by order
Since 1994, the export of textiles has held stable second place in the external turnover of the country. As before, more than 90% of Latvia’s textile and sewing industry products are exported  

Lithuania attracts foreign investors
The Lithuanian textile and sewing industry is the leader in terms of the number of employees and takes second place in terms of output amongst manufacturing companies. There are 559 textile and sewing companies in Lithuania (including all private ones) making up 20% of all enterprises in the country, employing a army of 56,500 people, or 27% of all people employed in the country's economy. More than 35 thousand people are employed in 414 sewing companies.  

Estonians looking for their own trademarks
The Estonian textile and sewing industry has a growing trend of gradual transition from sub-contracting to searching for it's own trademarks and an increasing output of finished articles  

The world at your feet
You want to organize an international seminar, take part in a foreign forum or simply have a good holiday? Turn to  professionals –  Atlas Tours travel agency has accumulated great experience in serving VIP clients and those striving to join their circles  

How to buy real estate in Latvia
To buy a house or apartment in Riga, Jurmala or any other nice place in Latvia is a pleasant but complicated task, especially for a non-resident. You will realize this upon reading a short guidebook written for buyers. A lawyer specializing in real-estate will help you, making this task easier  

You can't make your own soup in a common pot
It is the end of the fourth year for Piatras Vaitekunas in the position of Lithuanian ambassador in Latvia. There is active development in relationships between these two countries, largely thanks to the professional efforts of this intelligent and delicate by appearance man