The Ministry of the Economy and Innovation together with public body Invest Lithuania, the Ministry of the Interior and the Migration Department are currently working on amendments to the Law on Investments, Employment and the Legal Status of Aliens, which will enable investors to transfer their employees to Lithuania more easily. It is planned that employees of an enterprise or a group of enterprises who are moving will be able to apply for a temporary residence permit and their family members will have a possibility to come together. These amendments could be used by companies which commit to invest in Lithuania, create new jobs and pay adequate wages. According to the data of Invest Lithuania, currently more than 60 companies from Belarus alone move or are considering moving their activities to Lithuania.
‘In our neighbourhood, the Belarusian regime is persecuting people and businesses today, so we must help our neighbours and create conditions for continuing their activities in a free Lithuania. Belarus has a huge number of talents who could be successful in our country and create an innovative, sustainable and competitive economy. Raising and attracting talents is the key to Lithuania’s success,’ said Minister of the Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė.
She also stressed that to successfully compete with other countries for investment and the attraction of talents it is important to increase Lithuania’s visibility abroad as a country that creates an open and high-value economy. This requires the development of economic representation; it is therefore planned to expand the activities of Invest Lithuania, increase the number of representations in the UK and Germany, establish new offices in the US (Eastn and West Coasts) and Sweden. According to the Minister, Lithuania’s economic priority in the Asian region should not be China, but rather diversified markets, including Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia.
The Minister also said it is important to encourage highly-qualified Lithuanians living abroad and foreigners to pursue careers in companies operating in Lithuania which are engaged in R&D based on smart specialisation tendencies. This would be a further motive for investors to come to Lithuania and be aware that they will not face any shortage of qualified staff, which has been recently felt in some areas, like IT.
According to the Minister, in addition to the main strategic goals, including the promotion of high value-added economy, talent development and the attraction of foreign direct investment, public enterprise Invest Lithuania should, within 5 years, implement its specific goals, i.e. attract investment of about EUR 1 billion, which could create about 10 thousand jobs. The focus must be on investment to Lithuania’s information, communication and financial technologies sectors and to attracting investors’ funds to long-term assets in the fields of manufacturing and life sciences.
In order to improve the investment environment and attract talents to Lithuania, Minister of the Economy and Innovation intends to increase assistance to returning Lithuanians and coming foreigners, to create a more efficient innovation ecosystem in Lithuania, to digitise public services and ensure a transparent and clear business environment.
