summary

Passion for Borrowing Lithuania is the biggest debtor among the Baltic states. As the data of the Ministry of Finance proved, the state debt for June 1, 1996 was $873.78m. Enterprises which received loans in the name of the state, or with the state guarantee used close to $656.9m. At the beginning of the year only 20.4 per cent of the extended amount was returned from enterprisesÕ profit, 50.2 per cent was covered from the budget, 13.2 per cent was lent and 16.2 per cent returned in other ways. The Government confirmed that 5 enterprises which received foreign loans in the name of the state became bankrupt, 5 companies were insolvent, some 10 companies were late to settle accounts, they postponed the term of loan returning for another 10 enterprises. They tried to find out how the use of foreign loans is reflected in profit indexes, or whether enterprises created new job vacancies, started producing new products or providing new services. The data of the research proved that regional problems were ignored, for almost 61.7 per cent
of foreign loans was extended to Vilnius companies. Page 12-13 Troubled TV channel hopes to survive Liucija Baškauskaitė, the founder of the first commercial TV channel in Lithuania, Tele-3, and one of its co-owners, is not going to leave the TV business after the channel has been brought to court by its major creditor, the Status financial–industrial group. Ms Baškauskaitė claims that the bankruptcy proceedings against Tele–3 is a part of the StatusÕ carefully planned plot against her channel. To date, all of the seven creditors of the Tele–3 have brought their case against the troubled TV channel. The total sum of the arrears amounts to 1,6 m Lt which, according to Ms Baškauskaitė, is not much. Everything will be decided by the terms and process of the channelÕs bailing-out procedures. Page 16