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Politically Stable and Economically Free Market

Lithuania became a fully-fledged NATO and EU member in early 2004, and on 21 December 2007 the country was accepted into the Schengen area.

Trans-European Network Corridors

The EU’s Transportation Commission designated the two routes running through Lithuania, the North-South highway and the rail route connecting Scandinavia with Central Europe as well as the East-West route linking the huge Eastern markets with the rest of Europe, as being among the ten most important in Europe.

Two Trans European Network (TEN) corridors crossing Lithuania:

• North-South direction: I corridor ( the VIA BALTICA highway and the  RAIL BALTICA railway), connecting Tallinn - Riga - Saločiai - Panevėžys - Kaunas - Kalvarija - Warsaw, and I A corridor (Tallinn - Riga - Šiauliai - Tauragė - Kaliningrad)
• East - West corridor: IX corridor, IX B corridor branch (Kiev - Minsk - Vilnius -Klaipėda) and IX D corridor (Kaunas - Kaliningrad)

For more information please see www.transp.lt

International Airports

The country has 3 international airports located in Eastern (in the capital city Vilnius), Central (in the 2^nd largest city Kaunas) and Western (in the seaside resort Palanga) Lithuania.

For more information on Lithuania’s airports please visit www.vilnius-airport.lt, www.kaunasair.lt, www.palanga-airport.lt

Highest-capacity Ice-free Seaport

The northernmost and only ice-free seaport on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea is located in the western part of Lithuania. Klaipėda State Seaport is a regional transport hub connecting sea, land and railway routes from East to West.

Compared to neighbouring Eastern Baltic seaports, the port of Klaipėda has the widest shipping line network with other seaports.

Klaipėda State Seaport handles roughly 7,000 ships and 30 million tonnes of cargo every year, and accepts large tonnage vessels: dry-cargo vessels up to 70,000 DWT, tankers up to 100,000 DWT and cruise ships up to 270 meters length. The ice-free seaport of Klaipėda is able to receive PANAMAX-type vessels.

The draught of the entrance channel is 15 meters and the draught of the port navigation channel is 13-14,5 meters. Increasing the water depth in the northern part of the port to up to 17,5 meters is foreseen.

For more information on Klaipėda State Seaport please visit www.portofklaipeda.lt

Railway Network

Railway transport in Lithuania provides efficient long-distance passenger and cargo services. Railways carry approximately 50 million tons of cargo and 7 million passengers per annum.

Direct rail routes link Lithuania with Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Poland, and Germany. Also, the main transit route between Russia and Russia’s Kaliningrad Region passes through Lithuania.

The Lithuanian Railways bought the first of 34 of Europe’s most modern locomotives, the Eurorunner ER20 CF produced by Siemens. With the full delivery of all 34 German locomotives by the end of April 2009, Lithuania will become the country with the most powerful locomotive fleet in Eastern Europe. Siemens locomotives, able to haul up to 6000 tons, will increase the volume of transported cargo by up to 50% in Lithuania.

For more information on Lithuania’s railways please see www.litrail.lt and www.transp.lt

Best roads in the region

Though small in size, Lithuania boasts a 21,000 kilometres road system, 2/3 of which is paved with asphalt concrete. The roads are well-maintained and continuous improvements facilitate the ease of use year-round. Roads in Lithuania are known to be the best in the region. Lithuania is committed to investing 145 million EUR into the Via Baltica international highway, and around 100 million EUR into three public logistics centers, which will make up a total area of nearly 970 hectares in Lithuania’s three largest cities.

Logistics Centres

As new foreign developers have continued to ‘discover’ the Lithuanian market, the country’s northern, western, south-eastern and north-eastern regions have been undergoing construction of logistics centres. The greatest supply of modern warehousing facilities in 2009 remains in Vilnius (341,800 sqm, growth – 17,8%), with Kaunas following in second place (160,200 sqm, growth – 0,13%), and Klaipeda in third (103,800 sqm, growth – 23,5%). The overall supply of modern warehousing facilities in Lithuania in 2009 accounted for approximately 634,000 sqm.

Energy Capacities

Lithuania has well-developed energy capacities: thermal power plants, the only oil refinery in the Baltic countries, terminals for the import and export of oil and oil products, a natural gas supply system, district heating systems etc. The only oil refinery in the Baltic States AB ORLEN Lietuva owns and operates a system of pipelines with a total length of about 500 kilometres. The refinery not only satisfies the demands of the local market, but also exports to the neighbouring Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Belarus, as well as Ukraine and Western Europe.

Thanks to a well-developed infrastructure and links to energy-rich countries (such as Russia), the energy supply in Lithuania is reliable and available. Lithuania is connected to the energy networks of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – the very same countries where the EU buys most of its energy.

The electricity grid is part of the IPS/UPS electricity system, common to former Soviet countries. Lithuania, however, is progressing towards joining the European UCTE system. Lithuania is also taking concrete steps to establish links to Scandinavia via Sweden, and Western Europe via Poland.

The Lithuanian Government is currently searching for investors to help build a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania, with an estimated opening date of around 2018. The cost is estimated at 3-5 billion EUR.

For business and industry, the price of electricity is largely unregulated, and electricity is available for purchase via the electricity market, which is based on the Scandinavian Nordpool model. The transmission and distribution of electricity is conducted by state-owned companies with regulated prices.

Nearly all natural gas consumed in Lithuania comes from Russia. The supply of natural gas is safe, and reliable. The Lithuanian Government is planning to invest in building a liquefied natural gas terminal with underground natural gas storage.

Banking

Nine main banks operate in Lithuania, in addition to other credit institutions. The size of the market has loans outstanding at approximately 17 billion EUR. Banks in Lithuania are privately owned primarily by Scandinavian banking groups which guarantee stability. A number of Scandinavian financial groups operate in Lithuania. These include: Swedbank, SEB, Nordea, and DNB NORD. The banks have developed excellent customer service, as shown by the record number of users. 92% of Lithuanians use e-banking services.

Up-to-date Information Technologies

Lithuania has been actively participating in the dynamic development of the global telecommunications market and has been able to offer services corresponding to the latest  market trends.

Lithuania:

• leads the world  in the number of mobile telephone subscribers per 100 population and is the 1st in Europe  in GSM penetration. The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, by the World Economic Forum, reveals that Lithuania has got the largest number of mobile subscribers – 138,1 – per 100 population. Also, with the GSM penetration of 170% Lithuania is the European leader according to the GSM European Coverage 2007.
• has the broadest high-speed mobile broadband coverage in Europe. The widest 3.5G (HSDPA) mobile Internet network coverage in Europe, developed in Lithuania in 2006, enables 77% of the Lithuanian population to use the 3.5G mobile Internet.
• maintains the densest network of public Iinternet acess ppoints (875 in total) in Europe. This is the highest number of public Internet access points per capita on the continent.