“These trends point to the fact that Lithuania attracts investment to both manufacturing and service sectors. It means that the country is capable of offering proper conditions and enough of competent specialists for various businesses,” said Rimantas Žylius, Minister of Economy.
www.ukmin.lt

A total of 20 investment projects during the first nine months of 2011 with the overall project value at LTL 366 million (EUR 106 million) and more than 2,500 new jobs due to be offered have been confirmed, by signing letters of intent, by the Ministry of Economy and INVEST LITHUANIA.

The deals include five manufacturing projects, and another fifteen are in the service sectors.

The largest manufacturing projects will be carried out by Danspin, the Danish producer of carpet yarn, which invests LTL 41.4 million (EUR 11.9 million) into a new factory in Raseiniai, and Homegroup, the British manufacturer of furniture, which will allocate LTL 18.6 million (EUR 5.4 million) to expand its facility in Klaipėda. The latter deal is the largest in terms of a number of new jobs which is planned to reach 1,100.

The list of the largest service project is led by Call Credit, the UK’s company which is setting an LTL 52.7 million (EUR 15.3 million) customer service centre in Vilnius, and Western Union which is expanding its existing service centre by investing LTL 39 million (EUR 11.3 million). They are followed by GFK Austria which plans to open a representative office by allocating LTL 37.3 million (EUR 10.8 million). The two projects will create 200 new jobs each.

“These trends point to the fact that Lithuania attracts investment to both manufacturing and service sectors. It means that the country is capable of offering proper conditions and enough of competent specialists for various businesses. It is important that some of the projects are planned in smaller cities which usually receive less foreign investment and the creation of new jobs is therefore particularly important there,” said Rimantas Žylius, Minister of Economy.

All five manufacturing projects announced this year are to be implemented in towns and cities other than Vilnius, while smaller cities also attracted two of the service-related projects.

The two latest confirmed projects include a LTL 16.2 million (EUR 4.7 million) investment into a new scientific research laboratory by a US-based company, Levanta Scientific, in Vilnius and a LTL 12 million (EUR 3.5 million) project by a budget carrier Ryanair aimed to establish an aircraft maintenance centre in Kaunas. The projects are to introduce up to 80 and 60 of new jobs accordingly.

“Lithuania records a growing flow of investment into research and development of manufacturing. Also, foreign investors encourage demand for certain professions. For instance, the Ryanair’s new maintenance centre will surely prompt more people to opt for careers as aviation technicians,” said Mantas Nocius, General Manager of INVEST LITHUANIA.

According to Statistics Lithuania, the total accumulated foreign direct investment (FDI) during the first six months of this year amounts LTL 1.411 billion (EUR 408.7 million). The analysis made by the Ministry of Economy suggests that in one year this amount of FDI can contribute to lowering the unemployment rate by almost one percentage point and adding almost LTL 1 billion (EUR 289.6 million) to the country’s gross domestic product.