Barclay's plan to cut jobs in Lithuania to cause "public disappointment": investors association head

VILNIUS, April 23 (Xinhua) -- British Barclays bank's technology centre in Lithuania's capital Vilnius has been a symbol of successful attraction of foreign investments, thus its speculated plan to cut staff in Lithuania by a third will certainly lead to "public disappointment", Ruta Skyriene, head of the Investors' forum, said on Monday.

"Probably the technology centre found cheaper alternatives for business development," Skyriene was quoted as saying by local media.

She was commenting on the news announced back on Saturday that Barclays technology centre in Vilnius eyes cutting or relocating elsewhere 350 jobs. Currently Barclays Group Operations Centre in Lithuania, established as a strategic centre for technologies and services, employs 1,148 people.

Skyriene, the head of the association uniting foreign investors in Lithuania, also noted that Lithuania does not have "normal" flight connections with London yet, except flights operated by low cost carriers.

Skyriene added that this circumstance significantly diminishes Lithuania's "powers" as regards attracting foreign investors.

Lithuanian business website VZ.lt announced on Saturday that discussed job cuts are related to optimization of Barclay's subdivision in Lithuania, as well operations elsewhere.

"As all big organizations, Barclays reviews its operations worldwide on a regular basis. We constantly consider various possibilities to optimize our business all over the world, including the US, India, the Pacific region, the UK and Europe, and Lithuania," Mariano Andrade Gonzalez, executive director of Barclays operations centre in Lithuania, told in an interview with VZ.lt.

"We would like to emphasize that these discussions are taking place on a global level and are not related to Lithuania's investment environment," Gonzalez underlined.

He did not evaluate which specific positions are to be cut or relocated from Lithuanian centre. Enditem