In Brief - 2003-08-31

Personal liability for Estonian businessmen
Proposed amendments to the Commercial Act would force business owners to cover some of creditors' claims from their own personal assets. If the amendments were to be adopted, they would seriously alter the concept of limited liability in the Baltic state.
Reet Teder, head of the economic policy law department at the Estonian Chamber of Trade and Industry, said the basis and scope of the other owners' liability remained unclear. "The person at whose fault the illegal payment was made should be held liable," she said.
"In the opinion of many businessmen we have talked with, this act would rob them of any desire to engage in business in Estonia," Teder said. "It backs away from the present basic principles of commercial law and the limited liability concept."
A cover letter to the proposed amendments emphasized the improved protection of creditors' and small shareholders' interests as the reason for the amendments, which are being proposed by the Justice Ministry. (Baltic News Service)

Economy picking up speed
Preliminary figures for Lithuania's gross domestic product show that economic activity soared by 7.7 percent in the first six months of 2003, in year-on-year terms.
In the January-to-June period GDP totaled 25.6 billion litas (7.4 billion euros), the statistics department has reported. The result was fuelled by strong growth in the manufacturing sector; power, gas and water utilities; construction, wholesale and retail trade.
The economy grew by 6.1 percent in the second quarter of this year bringing the GDP to 13.3 billion litas in current prices. First-quarter GDP expanded by 9.4 percent. In the first half of 2003 GDP per capita came in at 7,723 litas, rising by nearly 8 percent, compared with the respective period of 2002.
In 2002 Lithuania's GDP rose by 6.7 percent.
The Ministry of Finance forecasts growth of GDP at 6.1 percent this year. In 2004 the economy should expand by 6.2 percent, ministry analysts predicted. (BNS)

Land developer having a banner year
Linstow Varner, a Norwegian-owned real estate company operating in Latvia, posted a consolidated profit of 1.6 million lats (2.4 million euros) in the first half of this year, a 21 percent growth from last year, said financial director Olafs Vitols.
He said the six-month net turnover this year was 4.4 million lats, a 36.8 percent growth year-on-year.
The financial director said six-month results were close to the planned figures but revenues from rent, paid in U.S. dollars in 98 percent of cases, were 200,000 lats short of the target because of the exchange rate fluctuations.
Linstow Varner profit and turnover growth this year was due to opening of the new shopping mall Origo in downtown Riga and expansion of the existing shopping mall Mols.
Investments by the real estate company this year total 5.6 million lats, slightly down from 6.7 million lats invested in the first half of 2002. (BNS)