News

Shale gas is natural gas produced from shale. Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States over the past decade, and interest has spread to potential gas shales in Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. One analyst expects shale gas to supply as much as half the natural gas production in North America by 2020.[1]
Some analysts expect that shale gas will greatly expand worldwide energy supply.[2] A study by the Baker Institute of Public Policy at Rice University concluded that increased shale gas production in the US and Canada could help prevent Russia and Persian Gulf countries from dictating higher prices for the gas it exports to European countries.[3] The Obama administration believes that increased shale gas development will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions,[4] However, there is growing evidence that the extraction and use of shale gas results in the release of more greenhouse gases than conventional natural gas, and may lead to emissions greater than those of oil or coal.

Read more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_gas

 
“ENTERPRISE LITHUANIA”
Managing Director
Paulius Lukauskas

“INVEST LITHUANIA”
Managing Director
Mantas Nocius

15 months ago, the Lithuanian Development Agency (LDA) was restructured into two public rganizations – INVEST LITHUANIA (IL) and ENTERPRISE LITHUANIA (EL).

The restructure was made aiming to increase the efficiency of the two major functions of LDA, i.e. attraction of FDI to Lithuania and promotion of Lithuanian enterprises’ exports. 

INVEST LITHUANIA is now responsible for the attraction of FDI projects, provide investment aftercare services as well as will be in charge of developing Lithuania’s economic image worldwide.

ENTERPRISE LITHUANIA is focusing on encouraging Lithuanian producers’ exports and provide support for local small and mid-sized businesses.

The Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania is the owner of the two new institutions.

……………

VilNews will, from time to time, bring news and information from the two institutions. We will also do our best to help and support them with their important tasks and duties.

Latest news from:

http://www.investlithuania.com/en/

Danes to invest over EUR 11 M into R&D centre

The Danish company Danspin is investing more than EUR 11 million in a spinning factory for carpet yarn in the Lithuanian town of Raseiniai. In addition to creating 200 new jobs at the factory, a centre for research and experimental development will be established. In its turn, the Lithuanian Ministry of Economy has granted almost 1.5 million to this project.

IBM’s new nanotechnology centre will collaborate with Lithuanian scientists

This week IBM and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Zurich (ETH Zurich), a premiere European science and engineering university, hosted more than 600 guests from industry, academia and government, to open the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center, located on the campus of IBM Research – Zurich (Switzerland). The facility is the centerpiece of a 10-year strategic partnership in nanoscience between IBM and ETH Zurich where scientists will research novel nanoscale structures and devices to advance energy and information technologies.

"fDi Intelligence“: Lithuania – example of FDI attraction

Lithuania is a country that is an example of the successful foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction. This has been announced in the annual review "Global FDI Outlook Report 2011” by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development prepared in cooperation with the fDi Intelligence of The Financial Times.

Latest news from:
 
http://www.enterpriselithuania.com/en/

China's Huawei to set up research laboratory in Vilnius

Lithuania 's mobile operator Omnitel will team up with China's telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies and the University of Vilnius for setting up a joint research laboratory next autumn. The Rector of Vilnius University, Mr. Benediktas Juodka, Omnitel‘s President, Mr. Antanas Zabulis, and the Head of Huawei Technologies in the Baltic countries, Mr. Ye Yong, have signed a cooperation agreement this week in Vilnius.

Kaunas Airport has won the Euro Annie Award as the fastest growing European airport in 2010 in the category of passenger volume segment of between 100,000 and 1 million passengers a year.

Over the last year, the numbers of passengers served in Kaunas airport have grown 77% with over 809,000 passengers served.

Dividends should be taxed only in the country where the income is earned

29-04-2011
The European Commission is running a consultation regarding taxation problems, when dividends are distributed across different countries. We have submitted our answers to the Commission, proposing to tax dividends only in the country where the income is earned.

The real estate tax is based on emotions

19-04-2011
LFMI's President R. Vainienė read a commentary on the Lithuanian Radio regarding the arguments for the real estate tax. There are no logical arguments to support the tax, there are only emotional arguments, and they are not a good basis for the tax.

Financial sector tax – it's just another tax and it will not help to prevent crisis

18-04-2011
The European Commission is running a consultation regarding the initiative to introduce a new tax for the financial sector. In our opinion, the tax is not grounded, it would reduce the EU's competitiveness in the financial sector, would promote the outflow of capital to other regions and would not reduce excessive risk taking. The most appropriate way to solve the problem of excessively risky behaviour is to end the support from the taxpayers' pockets, so the responsibility for risky behaviour would fall on the shoulders of the financial institutions.

01-04-2011
For the last few years we have been repeatedly showing the vices and negative effects of the progressive taxation, repeating them again in our analysis regarding the amendments to the Law of Personal Income Tax in which we proposed to not approve this project.
LFMI Policy Analyst K. Leontjeva published a commentary on progressive taxation in the daily Lietuvos žinios “Envy + Pride = progressive taxation.”

The introduction of voluntary common consolidated corporate tax base would increase the risk of it becoming mandatory, and would not help to achieve the set goals

18-04-2011
Even though the current EC proposal to apply the common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) voluntarily might look appealing to business, however, the creation of this system would be a first step towards the mandatory application of CCCTB to all firms. The tax base described in the proposal would increase the existing tax base in Lithuania, thus if CCCTB would become mandatory it is possible that the tax burden for Lithuanian firms would increase. Lithuania would lose the possibility to use a more transparent and simple corporate tax base as competitive advantage.

12-04-2011
We carried out a review of the use of EU structural funds in Lithuania and we concluded that even though Lithuania is one of the countries that absorb EU funds at the quickest pace, the set schedule is still not kept. It is necessary to think right now about the redistribution of EU funds in order to not only absorb them in time, but to get the maximum effect.

We suggest to simplify the accounting and administration of taxes on income from labour

07-04-2011
As the Parliament is getting ready to consider the guidelines for the reform of social insurance and pension system, among which is the aim to improve the administration of social security (Sodra), LFMI proposes to simplify the accounting and administration of taxes on income from labour (paying and declaring of the tax) by making the bases of income taxes uniform. LFMI suggests doing that together with the government’s plan to give the administration of social insurance payments to the State Tax Inspectorate.

It is necessary to gradually leave the system of state social insurance pensions and to move towards accumulation for pensions

13-04-2011
We propose to leave the system of state social insurance pensions and to step by step move towards the accumulation for pensions. Individuals who would fail to accumulate funds would receive state support after carrying out the means test. We also gave comments and suggestions regarding the different parts of the Project regarding the financing of the State Social Insurance Fund and the improvement of its administration and regarding the improvement of the system of pension accumulation.
We presented our position on April 28 at the Liberals Movement fraction’s meeting regarding the pensions reform.

Regulative burden

The question regarding the sanctions for executives must be reconsidered

19-04-2011
We have repeatedly warned the members of the Parliament regarding the new provisions in the Law of Competition that lay down personal responsibility for executives of firms who break this law. The prohibition to work in executive position for 3-5 years is too severe a punishment for a person who violated the law.

Control "Additives Free": good enforcement of the law instead of new requirements

08-04-2011
We propose to remove the requirement that all food products that display information by the producer that the product is "Additives free" or similar on the package must have laboratory tests that confirm this information. If in a specific case the said marking is misleading, and has the appearance of false advertising, the responsible institution should perform an investigation according to established order on every specific case regarding breaches of advertising regulations.
The daily Lietuvos žinios has published LFMI President R. Vainienė's commentary on this topic, "How the control of "Additives Free" should look like."

Shadow economy: the causes are clear yet the fight is unsuccessful

11-04-2011
What causes the shadow and how to fight it? Are the measures that the government is proposing, such as cash registers and restrictions on the use of cash a good way to fight it? What is the scope of the shadow economy in other European countries? What can we judge from the first two months of the year about the success of government's plan to draw one billion litas from the shadow economy? LFMI's Policy Analyst Vytautas Žukauskas has published an article on these topics in the weekly Veidas.
In addition to that, on April 20 we participated in the hearings "The effectiveness of the Governmental measures to fight the shadow economy during the first quarter of the year 2011, and their possible impact on the income for the budget".

Why the shadowy Albinas will not go to the bank?

05-04-2011
LFMI president R. Vainienė read a commentary on the Lithuanian Radio regarding the new ways the government is trying to fight the shadow economy. This time the government has decided to restrict the use of cash. Is that an appropriate measure? Or maybe the shadow is simply laughing at a fight like this?

What measures would help to further a decrease in unemployment and encourage the creation of new jobs?

29-04-2011
Replying to the government‘s consultation we propose to not fake a fight against unemployment, but to take urgent steps – to improve the business environment, to create the preconditions for growth of the economy, to reduce the negative view of the entrepreneurship, and the mentality that is hostile to business, to lighten the procedures of forming and discontinuing a work agreement, to discard the protection of special groups, to increase the flexibility of regulation regarding the negotiation of the working time and to create more possibilities to negotiate the working time individually or at the company level, to reduce the unemployment benefits and other guarantees that are extended to the registered unemployed, to reduce the minimum wage. All of these measures are not „anti-crisis“ and are not aimed at only fighting the consequences of the existing unemployment or to temporary ease the situation in the labour market. The aim of all those measures is not only a reduction of unemployment, but also a sustainable long-term economic growth.

It is necessary to continue and not to halt the reform of the railway sector

19-04-2011
The Parliament proposes to remove the Law on the Railway Sector Reform from its agenda and so essentially change the direction of the railway sector, on which the agreement was reached in 2004, when the Law of Railway Sector Reform was passed. The draft law contains no strong arguments to prove the necessity to eliminate the above mentioned Law of Railway Reform. We propose to not approve the bill.

The electricity market lacks competition and freedom of choice

29-04-2011
As the new version of a draft of the law on electric energy reached the Parliament, we provided our comments and proposals regarding the issuance of permits to develop energy production capacity, the connection of new consumers to distribution network, the direct lines, and competition in the electricity sector.

Changes to the Laws on Heating Utilities and Competition will not solve the existing problems, creating the new ones instead

12-04-2011
The prohibition for maintenance companies (or persons) to have any connections with the providers of heating or the companies that produce the equipment of heating or service the equipment will be very hard to implement in smaller cities. The new regulation may reduce the efficiency and raise the costs of maintenance services.

The changes to the Law on Competition will not improve the supervisory mechanism and will increase the administrative burden for companies, meanwhile the definition of dominant position in the draft is discriminatory towards the companies that service building's heating and hot water system and towards the subjects, who administer the objects of common usage.

Vytautas Žukauskas: Whose income would be increased by progressive taxation?
29-04-2011

Kaetana Leontjeva. The Royal wedding - through the social glasses
29-04-2011

Vytautas Žukauskas: The fight with the shadow in a scheme
20-04-2011

The Embassy of the United States of America announced the official opening of the Office of the U.S. Secret Service in Estonia on Friday, May 20.

The Secret Service office will work closely with its law enforcement partners within the criminal investigative infrastructure in the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Estonia was selected as the site for the new Secret Service office due to both the investigative nexus it provides in combating cyber and financial crimes, as well as the opportunity it provides the agency in the fulfillment of its protective duties within the region.

Tallinn will also serve as a prime location from which to engage counterparts in Russia and throughout the Nordic region.

Estonian Minister of Justice Mr. Kristen Michal, U.S. Ambassador to Estonia Michael C. Polt, and visiting U.S. Secret Service Assistant Director A.T. Smith will attend the event.

http://www.estonianfreepress.com