News

Scandinavian shared service businesses are not lost in translation in Lithuania

2010-11-15, Invest Lithuania

INVEST LITHUANIA in association with the largest and most established international community of shared services and outsourcing professionals Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON) has interviewed Scandinavian organizations who have successfully implemented shared services in Lithuania to share their experiences and knowledge obtained on the market.

Heads of Mirror Support Services, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and Unicall in one voice say that their investments in Lithuania have been exceeding their expectations; they found strong talent pool, cost-effective business conditions and easy access to other markets.

Lithuania far ahead of Latvia and Estonia in FDI attraction

2010-11-15, Invest Lithuania

Lithuanian Minister of Economy Dainius Kreivys presents latest FDI figures in Lithuania for the Lithuanian Investment Advisory Board membered by heads of Microsoft, Barclays, IBM, TeliaSonera, Kesko, Siemens and other global leaders, gathered in Vilnius today and for the fourth time already.

"With the newly launched FDI projects in Lithuania this year, we are leading in the region of the three Baltic States. Lithuania is by 1/3 ahead of its neighbours”, says the Minister. Mantas Nocius, Managing Director of Invest Lithuania, confirms that Lithuania is attracting the greatest bulk of capital and creates most of the jobs among the three Baltic countries this year.

Figures by fDiMarkets.com database show that during January-October of the present year 26 new FDI projects were in the implementation process in Lithuania, the figure by 27 % and 30 % bigger than in Estonia and Latvia, respectively. The new FDI wave is expected to bring EUR 778 million capital (by 60.7 % and 9.7 % more than in Estonia and Latvia) and create almost 2900 new jobs (by 23.7 % and 36.6 % more than in Estonia and Latvia) in Lithuania this year.

The capital city Vilnius has collected most of the projects, with Barclays, Western Union and Cogent Communications among them; two projects of Coca-Cola and Graanul Invest have been launched in Alytus in Southern Lithuania and also two of Heidelberg Cement and Fortum in the seaport city of Klaipeda; Kaunas, Kedainiai and Naujoji Akmene have been implementing a project each. 

Doing Business 2011: Lithuania 3 steps up and among EU’s TOP 10

2010-11-4, Invest Lithuania

Lithuania is 3 steps up. moving from the 26th to 23rd position, in the newest Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs world ranking, published by IFC and the World Bank. Also, Lithuania stands No. 8 in the EU economies ranking.

Lithuania has made biggest improvements in the categories of Starting a Business (rank No. 87; 11 positions up) and Paying Taxes (rank No. 44; 6 positions up), and is listed among 6 European economies (including Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden) which improved in three or more areas covered by the report.

Globally, doing business remains easiest in the high-income economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and most difficult in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Singapore leads the world in the ease of doing business for the fifth year running, followed by Hong Kong, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the US. Kazakhstan took top honors for the most-improved business environment in the past year.

World Bank report, which ranks 183 economies on key aspects of business regulation for domestic firms, discloses that 117 economies carried out 216 regulatory reforms aimed at making it easier to start and operate a business, strengthening transparency and property rights, and improving the efficiency of commercial dispute resolution and bankruptcy procedures. The report also shows that about 85 % of the world’s economies have made it easier for entrepreneurs to operate in the past five years.

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