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TEMPLETON THORP LIMITED, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
TT Business Intelligence Report
Vol. 1, No. 27, 7 August 2002
Business Intelligence, Crime, Corruption and Debt in Europe and the former
Soviet Union
UPCOMING CONFERENCES
LVA's "3rd INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SUMMIT OF THE CIS"
This event will take place on 1-3 October 2002 at the Evian Congress
Centre, Evian, France. For further information, tel: +44 (0)20 8795
2970, fax: +44 (0)20 8795 2977, email: elena@lva.co.uk, W: www.lva.co.uk
THE ADAM SMITH INSTITUTE'S "RUSSIA'S ACCESSION TO THE WTO"
To take place on 16-17 October 2002 at the Moscow Marriot Grand Hotel,
Moscow, Russia. For further information, tel: +44 (0)20 7490 3774, fax:
+44 (0)20 7505 0079, email: jaume@asi-conferences.com, W: www.asi-conferences.com
CROATIA
$35 MILLION NEEDED TO COMPUTERISE LAND REGISTRY
About $35 million will be needed for a five-year project to computerise
the land registry and for the introduction of electronic record-keeping
in land registries in Croatia. The project is one of the government's
strategic tasks and a $24-million loan from the World Bank and $4.5
million from the EU's CARDS programme along with $6 million from the
state budget, will cover the costs. This year, the government has
allocated about 1 million kuna, approximately $135,000, of budgetary
funding for the project. The objective of compiling a credible land
register is a step in the country's economic development. The current
muddled situation over real estate ownership is an obstacle in the
economic development and is seen as hurdle for foreign business people
willing to invest in Croatia. Since 1997, pilot projects to introduce
electronic record-keeping have been conducted in land registries in six
towns: Varazdin, Rijeka, Zadar, Osijek, Zupanja and Pula. (NewsBase 07.viii.02)
CZECH REPUBLIC
UNICREDITO SAID TO BE CLOSE TO BUYING ZIVNOSTENSKA BANKA
The sale of Zivnostenska Banka (ZB) to Italian bank UniCredito (UC)
should be concluded by the end of this week, the Italian press writes.
UC should pay EUR 200 mln (CZK 6 bln) for an 85% stake in 6th largest
Czech bank to its current owner, German Bankgessellschaft Berlin. It is
believed that UC will strengthen ZB's focus on small clients. (PBJ 07.viii.02)
FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER JAN KAVAN RESIGNS
Former Foreign Minister Jan Kavan has resigned from his post as one of
the Czech Republic's three representatives at the European Convention,
citing lack of time as he continues to sit as a parliamentary deputy for
the governing Social Democrats and was recently elected President of the
UN General Assembly for the annual session that starts in September.
Speaking at a press conference following a cabinet meeting on Monday,
Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla said he had accepted Kavan's written
request to stand down from the post and said it was likely that foreign
ministry political director Jan Kohout, would replace him on the
Convention. According to Spidla, Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda does not
object to the choice of Kohout. The Czech Republic has three
representatives in the European Convention. Besides Kavan, the other two
are Civic Democratic Party (ODS) deputy chairman Jan Zahradil, who
represents the Chamber of Deputies, and former foreign minister and now
Senator Josef Zieleniec, who represents the Senate. Speaking on Czech
Television on Sunday, Kavan repeatedly denied that his resignation had
anything to do with the charges laid against former foreign ministry
general secretary Karel Srba of conspiracy to murder an investigative
journalist and a further investigation into Srba's financial dealings
while at the ministry. (NewsBase 07.viii.02)
FOREIGN INVESTORS CALL ON NEW GOVERNMENT TO CRACK DOWN ON CORRUPTION
The European-Czech Forum, representing commercial and industrial
chambers of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and
Sweden, called on the new Czech government to initiate a radical reform
of the business environment's legal framework and to contain economic
crime, including corruption, the daily "Mlada fronta Dnes" reported on
16 July. Members of the forum said this can only be achieved through a
radical improvement of the Czech judiciary's work and an improvement of
the public administration and independent regulators. (RFE/RL 25.vii.02)
HUNGARY
GOVERNMENT PICKS UP FARMERS' DEBT
To alleviate losses caused by extreme weather, the government will take
over up to Ft 72.5 billion in farmers' bank debts, Minister of
Agriculture and Rural Development Imre Németh said yesterday. Ft 45
billion will be paid to banks, with another Ft 15 billion going to
farmers who are not in debt but lost at least 25% of their expected
revenue. The money was originally targeted for making the agricultural
sector more competitive, but farmers need urgent help, the minister
said. (BBJ 07.viii.02)
PM TALKS OF COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE PAST
Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy told the parliamentary commission probing
his counter-intelligence past that during his time as an agent his only
duties were to protect state secrets from foreign intelligence services.
Medgyessy said he was a secret service officer at the finance ministry
between 1978-82 during Hungary's negotiations to join the International
Monetary Fund, the local media reported. He denied ever working for the
KGB, and said he never wrote reports on his associates, as it was not
his task. Medgyessy told commission Chairman Laszlo Balogh that he did
not receive any regular payment for his activity. During the hearing on
Thursday, which lasted more than three hours, Medgyessy said his main
assignment was analysing and assessing information on the state of
Hungary's economy with a focus on the country's foreign-currency
position. He wrote annual summaries and regularly provided reports to a
superior officer. Medgyessy told the hearing that he took a job in the
secret services for the sake of his country and will not be blackmailed. (NewsBase 06.viii.02)
KAZAKHSTAN
CASE CLOSED ON DEATH OF KAZAKH OPPOSITIONIST'S DAUGHTER
Police in Almaty have closed the investigation into the death of Leyla
Baysetova, daughter of opposition weekly "Respublika" Editor Lira
Baysetova, concluding that she was a drug addict who hanged herself with
her jeans in a moment of temporary insanity, Kazakh Commercial TV
reported on 31 July. Leyla Baysetova was arrested, hospitalized, and
died last month under mysterious circumstances shortly after her mother
published material relating to Swiss bank accounts rumored to belong to
President Nursultan Nazarbaev and members of his family. Police denied
on 31 July that law enforcement officials were involved in Leyla
Baysetova's death or that she had been beaten in custody, as alleged
last month by the international watchdog organization Reporters Without
Borders. But Kazakh television questioned the police's findings, saying
no attempts had been made to analyze Leyla Baysetova's blood to
determine if she had taken drugs and no jeans were presented as
evidence. (RFE/RL 01.viii.02)
LATVIA
CORRUPTION PREVENTION BUREAU FAILS TO FIND NEW DIRECTOR
The second competition to find a director for the new Corruption
Prevention Bureau ended unsuccessfully on Tuesday when the cabinet
rejected the three top candidates proposed by a special selection jury,
the local media reported. The candidates were Security Police Deputy
Chief Didzis Smitins, deputy head of the Service for Preventing
Legalisation of Illegally Acquired Funds Aldis Lieljuksis, and
Presidential Security Service official Raimonds Avdejevs. Prime Minister
Andris Berzins announced that applications for a third competition will
be accepted until August 12. He said the same selection jury will
continue to examine candidates, as he has found it to be "trustworthy."
Berzins noted that in the event that no suitable candidate is found in
the third competition he will likely ask parliament to amend the law
founding the bureau by abolishing the requirement that the candidate
have a university degree. (NewsBase 02.viii.02)
POLAND
SOFTBANK STRATEGY SEEMS SET TO FOCUS ON CONSOLIDATION
A major supplier of software for banks, Softbank, yesterday announced it
wants to spend the revenue from its planned PLN 80 million bond issue on
developing the company's domestic potential and to restructure its
debts. The General Shareholders Meeting, which starts today, will vote
on proposals. The issue is to begin in the fall, when hopefully the
financial markets will have picked up. This strategy will mean that
ideas of acquiring foreign companies are being shelved. Softbank
President, Aleksander Lesz, announced these plans after his company's
shares plummeted following rumors that it might might be a Polish Enron.
Softbank plans to acquire innovative products and resources. Moreover,
the enterprise is seeking to partially transform its short-term debts of
PLN 80 million into a long-term one. "The details about amounts for
different purposes will be known when we start the bond issue," said
Lukasz Grochowski, Softbank's director in charge of contacts with
investors. He also added that the issue should help the company to fight
the competition more effectively. (WBJ 07.viii.02)
GROUP TO DEFEND PLANTS THREATENED BY BANKRUPTCY
Some 130 representatives of the Solidarity trade union set up a team in
Gdansk on August 1 with the aim of co-ordinating efforts in defending
plants threatened by bankruptcy, according to local media reports.
Solidarity leader Marian Krzaklewski said the union may resort to a
national protest action if talks with the government and within the
Tri-partite Commission, of the government, employers and trade unions,
do not bring any positive solutions for the plants that have found
themselves in a difficult situation. (NewsBase 06.viii.02)
RUSSIA
PUTIN VETOES BANKRUPTCY LAW
President Vladimir Putin has vetoed the law on bankruptcy, one of the
key economic bills passed by parliament during the spring session, news
agencies reported Tuesday. Putin, following the recommendations of the
Kremlin's legal department, sent the bill back to the State Duma because
it contradicts the Civil Code, Prime-Tass reported. Specifically,
parliament's version only defines three categories of priority
creditors, whereas the Civil Code stipulates that there must be five.
Putin is also asking deputies to toughen standards used to appoint
external managers and amend sections on the bankruptcy procedures for
state-owned and strategic enterprises. Viktor Pleskachevsky, head of the
Duma's property committee and a member of the Unity party, which lobbied
the bill, was quoted by Interfax as saying that a new version would be
ready for deputies to debate by September. "The Duma will most likely
agree with the president and the amended law could come into effect in
October at the earliest," he said. Pleskachevsky last month said
amending the existing law was necessary to set new mechanisms to protect
the rights of private owners. The law has been used by creditors and
competitors to initiate bankruptcy procedures and seize control of
companies, he said. "With the new law, the rights of owners, creditors
and the government will be much better protected," he said. Analysts
predicted the veto and expect the debate to continue when the Duma
reconvenes next month. "The new bill contradicts the Civil Code, so
Putin had every right to veto it," said Edward Neigebauer, head of the
legal and corporate finance department at investment house Prospekt.
"The Duma was trying very hard to lobby the interests of certain
industrial groups, and as a result the law was not ready to work,"
Neigebauer said. "It means that various political groups received more
room for lobbying and it is hard to say what the final version of the
law will look like." (The Moscow Times 07.viii.02)
CONDOMS STICKUP
Armed with a single gun, six robbers made off with more than 1 million
condoms during a raid on a medical warehouse in St. Petersburg, Agence
France Presse quoted police as saying Monday. In addition to the 88
boxes of condoms, each containing some 12,000 contraceptives, the
robbers also stole a photocopier, the report said. Before escaping in a
car, the thieves tied up two female warehouse employees, the agency
reported. Police said there were no immediate leads in the case.
(The Moscow Times 07.viii.02)
PUTIN SUGGESTS MAKING LOCAL ADMINISTRATIONS MORE TRANSPARENT
At a government meeting on 5 August, President Vladimir Putin called for
making public the details of regional budgets and regional-level
backlogs of unpaid wages to state-sector workers, ITAR-TASS reported.
Putin suggested that such a measure is necessary so that the public can
know the real state of affairs, Interfax reported. Trade union leaders
have been suggesting for some time that greater transparency of regional
government finances might help eliminate situations in which regional
governments use money earmarked for the wages of teachers and doctors
for other purposes. They have argued that if information about budget
transfers from Moscow was reported in local newspapers, then it might be
possible to track how the money is spent. Also at the meeting, Deputy
Prime Minister Valentina Matvienko reported that 16 regions are
currently behind in paying wages. However, she added, these backlogs
will be completely paid off by 1 September. (RFE/RL 06.viii.02)
LUKOIL HEAD WANTS TO EXPAND IN EUROPE
LUKoil head Vagit Alekperov said his company participated in the tender
to privatize the oil refinery in Gdansk, one of the biggest in the
country, gzt.ru and "Vedomosti" reported on 5 August. However, Alekperov
added that the Polish authorities are -- "without reason" -- suspicious
of LUKoil's bid and might ignore it. He added that LUKoil does not
intend to purchase any other refineries in Europe and is concentrating
on its program of buying gasoline stations throughout Central and
Eastern Europe. "Vedomosti," citing Bloomberg, reported that LUKoil is
seeking to expand its presence on the Spanish market and wants to
purchase Austria's Avanti International, which owns 329 gas stations in
Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary.
(RFE/RL 06.viii.02)
SHEFLER STAYING ABROAD
Yury Shefler, the vodka magnate who controls the production of
Stolichnaya vodka outside of Russia and who is wanted by prosecutors for
allegedly threatening to kill a senior official in the Agriculture
Ministry, will return to Russia as soon as he has completed his
commercial activities abroad, his attorney said Monday. The lawyer,
Alexander Gofshtein, said the accusation by former Deputy Agriculture
Minister Vladimir Loginov that Shefler threatened to kill him over a
dispute over trademarks was "conjecture." Shefler has categorically
denied making any threats. Loginov's statement alleges that during a
telephone conversation, which took place in March, Shefler referred to
certain individuals who would "reckon with" Loginov if the trademark
dispute was not resolved. Loginov is the head of Soyuzplodoimport, a
state company resurrected by the Agriculture Ministry to control the
domestic rights to Stolichnaya, Moskovskaya and the other trademarks
that the government says Shefler's Swiss company, S.P.I., illegally
acquired in the late 1990s. (The Moscow Times 06.viii.02)
IDEOLOGUE OF GLASNOST COMMENTS ON SERVILITY OF RUSSIAN JOURNALISTS
Aleksandr Yakovlev, the ideologue of former Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev's policy of liberalizing the mass media and a former Politburo
member, told "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 5 August that freedom of speech in
Russia is going through a difficult time both because of government
policies and the behavior of journalists. "I am enraged by certain
ursine actions of the government toward the mass media, but one should
not expect anything else. It is much more unpleasant, however, to see
how some journalists themselves are trying to serve the authorities, to
line up with them. This is a real misfortune," said Yakovlev, who is now
a member of the board of trustees of the TVS television company. Another
powerful blow against freedom of the press came in the 1990s when the
mass media were involved in a "war of kompromat" among financial clans,
Yakovlev continued. "If journalists write and tell lies, freedom of
speech is perceived as the freedom to lie," Yakovlev noted. "Aggressive
cynicism murders freedom of speech." (RFE/RL 06.viii.02)
SIBUR OFFICIALS TO REMAIN IN CUSTODY
A municipal court in Moscow on 6 August refused to release from jail any
of the defendants in the Sibur trial, despite the fact that the original
plaintiff in the case, Gazprom, has dropped its complaint and stated
that it has no claims against them, gazeta.ru reported. Former Sibur
officials Yakov Goldovskii, Yevgenii Koshits, Larisa Abramenko, and
Austrian citizen Boris Blagerman are accused of embezzlement, fraud,
money laundering, and abuse of office. Their lawyers had asked that they
be released on bond pending their criminal trial in view of Gazprom's
decision to drop its civil complaints. The website reported that a
spokesman for Sibur, which is a Gazprom subsidiary, repeated earlier
statements that the company had suffered no losses as a result of the
activities of the accused. The trial will continue with the testimony of
witnesses on 7 August. (RFE/RL 06.viii.02)
INTELLECTUAL-PROPERTY THEFT AT EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS
Forty percent of all musical compact discs produced in Russia are
illegal, pirate copies, RosBalt reported on 5 August, citing an Ekho
Moskvy interview with the head of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry's intellectual property commission, Oleg Gordiiko. Gordiiko
said that this represents enormous losses for the Russian economy.
Commenting on a recent letter from U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow
claiming that Russian defense plants, including one headed by Gordiiko
himself, are largely responsible for producing pirate discs, Gordiiko
said that U.S. producers currently have no presence in the Russian
market and "they just want to clean up the market for themselves."
(RFE/RL 06.viii.02)
RUSSIAN LIVING STANDARDS
By this summer, the living standards in Russia had surpassed their
levels before the financial crisis in August of 1998, announced Vladimir
Sokolin, chairman of the Russian State Statistics Committee. Thus, in
June 2002, Russians' real incomes exceeded their levels in August of
1998 by 5.4% and the wages and salaries were also up 18.7% in real
terms. At the same time, current pensions in Russia are 7.5% lower than
they were before the ruble crash in 1998. Since August 1998, the jobless
rate in Russia has decreased by 30%, the amount of wage arrears shrunk
by 60% and consumer prices shot up by 2.5 times. (NewsBase 02.viii.02)
BUSINESSMAN PROFILED IN 'THE NEW YORK TIMES' SHOT ONE DAY LATER
Andrei Chunyak, who was featured in an article about his cafe in
Vladivostok in the "The New York Times" on 30 July, was killed the next
day, Interfax-Eurasia reported. Chunyak was shot four times in the head
and chest with a nine-millimeter "Baikal" pistol with a silencer,
according to the agency. According to "The New York Times," in addition
to being a co-owner of Studio Coffee, Chunyak was also a trader in scrap
metal. Chunyak dismissed questions about the connection between
organized crime and his sector. "What you see on TV -- it's rubbish. The
main thieves are the bureaucrats. They are the mafia," the newspaper
quoted him as saying. The article profiled the trend of "businessmen"
turning from "thuggery to tamer, more lawful business."
(RFE/RL 01.viii.02)
AUDIT CHAMBER SEEKS GREATER POWER TO BATTLE CORRUPTION
Sergei Stepashin, chairman of the Russian Audit Chamber, has presented a
plan on fighting corruption in Russia, Interfax news agency reported on
21 July. Speaking at a conference on corruption outside Moscow,
Stepashin put forth three possible options to help combat the scourge.
He said existing economic laws need to be revised, since they currently
make it difficult to punish corruption; bureaucratic red tape must be
reduced, since "the more officials, the more sources for corruption";
and the influence of state officials in economic matters must be
drastically reduced. Stepashin also called for granting the Audit
Chamber greater authority to inspect not only the federal component of
regional budgets, but local components as well. (RFE/RL 25.vii.02)
INFORMATION PROVIDERS
NEWSBASE
NewsBase is a leading provider of business and economic news and
intelligence from Russia, Central Europe and the FSU. Daily bulletins
and industry specific weekly reports backed by an archive containing
over 10 million words combine to provide a comprehensive service to a
global blue chip client base.
Contact: Jon Laurijssen
T: +44 (0)131 478 8537
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W: www.newsbase.com, www.newsbaseworldmonitoring.com
NEW WORLD PUBLISHING
New World Publishing is a primary source of business-related information
for Central Europe, through its publications the Prague, Budapest and
Warsaw Business Journals.
Contact: Mark Child
T: +420 2 4608 6524
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W: www.ceebiz.com, www.pbj.cz, www.wbj.pl, www.bbj.hu
THE MOSCOW TIMES
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Contact: Andrew Boag
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RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY
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Contact: Peter Baumgartner
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E: BaumgartnerP@rferl.org
W: www.rferl.org
EVENTS
NEW WORLD PUBLISHING - Prague Business Journal
Business Breakfast with Esther Dyson
Date: Thursday, August 22, 2002
Location: Hotel Andel's, Stroupeznického 21, Prague 5, Czech Republic
This is a special invitation to interact with the world's foremost
Information Technology guru, and to discuss Central Europe's IT industry
and how its needs are being met by local venture and human capital
providers, entrepreneurs, corporate investors and the government.
Further details about this event can be found at:
www.pbj.cz/events/edbb.htm
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