News

On 27 August in Vilnius, during a session of the convention of heads of Lithuania’s diplomatic representations, which is dedicated to the interaction of business and diplomacy, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs V.Ušackas stressed that during the present economic downturn, the necessity for the economic diplomacy was not protectionism, but free trade, and not passivity, but aggressiveness.

The Minister stressed that export was the engine of Lithuania’s economy. Therefore, V.Ušackas invited the assembled businessmen and diplomats to exude optimism, determination and dynamics to each other, so that Lithuania’s interests would be better represented abroad and so that the markets that we had are entered could be protected, and that we could penetrate the markets that we still had not discovered and that provide new possibilities for development.

In her speech, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė said that Lithuania’s main priorities abroad included contraction of free trade agreements, implementation of a more active economic diplomacy and an institutional reform in the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, seeking to avoid the duplication of functions.

While speaking about concrete steps that could help improving export conditions, the Vice-Minister named macro and micro levels.

According to A.Skaisgirytė Liauškienė, creating the macroeconomic environment means bilateral and multilateral negotiations aiming at improving conditions for the Lithuanian goods to enter the markets of other countries. In the meantime, the micro level presupposes direct assistance to business: furnishing with information and contacts, and organising business missions with associated structures.

The Vice-Minister also highlighted that Lithuania closely cooperated with the European Union, while negotiating with far-away countries and combined forces with other EU countries, protecting the interests of the Lithuanian businessmen in the third countries.

According to Minister of Economy Dainius Kreivys, who took part in the convention, the goal of Lithuania was to become a centre for services in the Baltic Sea region, to promote information technology, financial, logistics, medical and tourism services, innovative industry and biotechnologies.