RIGA, Feb 9 (LETA) - Due to shortage of orders, five employees of Daugavpils Lokomotivju Remonta Rupnica (DLRR) train engine repair company have been given the unemployed status, said Daugavpils city council deputy chairwoman Livija Jankovska (Our Party) in a press conference today.

She said that the situation in the company after its shareholder, Estonian businessman Oleg Ossinovski, announced on possible mass lay off in the company has been discussed at the city council. So far there is information about five employees who have registered as unemployed with the State Employment Agency. The employees have been laid off because of decrease in orders.

The local government is ready to support DLRR, and the company in nearest future will submit a request to help to develop communication with the Economics Ministry.

Daugavpils Mayor Igors Prelatovs (Our Party) has recently visited the company. In his words, DLRR has asked the Economics Ministry to grant export guarantees that would help to promote the company's competitiveness. 

Ossinovski said in an interview with LETA recently that the company may have to lay off half of employees or about 300 workers if the company fails to receive export guarantees/

The main problem of the Daugavpils company is that its rivals in Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Czech Republic and Germany make very active use of state support for exports.

"Often this is not even money, it is export guarantees. In terms of competition, Latvia is currently losing out. If there were measures to support exports in Latvia, I believe that the Daugavpils company would not even have any major problems. Today, however, we are really losing out in terms of competition. I don't know about other companies, but DLRR has not received any export guarantees," says Ossinovski.

He reveals that DLRR was inexplicably informed couple of weeks ago that it would not receive export guarantees because of an ongoing legal dispute involving Ossinovski.

Most of DLRR customers are from Western countries at the moment - from Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic and many others. There are also many locomotives at DLRR from private Ukrainian companies, as well as from private companies in Russia. DLRR has received no state orders from Russia.

"At the moment, DLRR is highly competitive. A lot of money has been invested in the company and it currently in a very good position. The quality of work done by DLRR is very good, I'd say, it is of top quality. DLRR also offers competitive prices," says Ossinovski.

DLRR has not laid off anyone so far as the company is still hoping to receive export guarantees. "We are not asking for money as we will borrow money from banks. We need guarantees."

In turn, if DLRR fails to receive export guarantees, one of the scenarios provides for laying off about 300 workers, or half of the company's employees, says Ossinovski.