News

On 12 December during the conference “Assistance to Less Developed Countries: Lithuania’s priorities and international obligations” at the Seimas (Parliament) of the Republic of Lithuania, the policy of Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania was presented.

Members of the Seimas and European Parliament, Office of the Seimas, Government, Ministries, nongovernmental organisations, representatives of academic community and the media participated at the conference.

The policy of Development Cooperation of Lithuania and its implementation was presented at the forum, international obligations of the country and benefits of the policy for Lithuania were discussed.

Most attention at discussions of the conference was dedicated to priority countries. It was discussed in what countries Lithuania should implement projects, what kind of projects – long term or short term – were effective and how to strengthen administrative capacities of Lithuanian nongovernmental organisations and public institutions, while transferring Lithuania’s experience to developing countries.

As head of the United Nations Development Programme in Lithuania, Lyra Jakulevičienė noticed that the choice of Lithuania to implement projects of Development Cooperation in neighbouring countries was meaningful, because particularly in this region Lithuania could transfer its experience most effectively. Besides, as compared to various economic indicators of developing countries, some Eastern European and Central Asian countries were lagging behind African countries.

The conference at the Seimas was organised by the National Development Cooperation Organisations’ Platform in cooperation with the representation office of the European Commission in Lithuania and Office of the Seimas of Lithuania. The discussion was led by editor-in-chief of the news agency of the Baltic News Service Artūras Račas.